Assam governor Jagdish Mukhi on Wednesday advised the health department to effectively implement contact tracing to arrest the rise of novel coronavirus infection in the state.

He said taking into consideration of the Covid-19 situation across the country where the spike of the virus has been quite steep in the past couple of days, the state has to be alert to reverse the spurt of positive cases in the state.

The statement comes after detection of two more Covid-19 cases in Assam.

He said with the detection of two more positive cases, one each in Goalpara and Kokrajhar districts, concerted efforts should be made to aggressively implement contact tracing to arrest the chain of transmission.

He reviewed the mitigation measures adopted and led by the health and family welfare department in close coordination with other line departments of the state.

Mukhi said as the state has allowed to have eased restrictions since May 5 and anticipated further relaxation to strengthen its sluggish economy in days to come, an asymptomatic positive person may spread the infection to several others before he or she is detected.

“We need to aggressively implement contract tracing to halt further progression of the dreaded virus and break the chain of transmission,” he said.

The governor, however, hailed the timely actions of the health and family welfare department along with other line departments for their clinical approach in dealing with the situation, which has enabled the state to curb the rate of progression.

He asked the chief secretary, director-general of police, principal secretary, health and family welfare and other senior officers of different line departments to sustain their series of good work in the next few months to keep the virus at bay.

He also maintained that the situation of Assam in the next 14 days or more will be very crucial in the face of eased restrictions.

Mukhi also observed that in spite of the best efforts of the scientific community across the globe, as no vaccination has been developed as of now, social distancing remains the one and only protective tool to keep the virus away.

He directed that every department has to follow the advisories set by the government to add teeth to the administrative mechanism to win over the virus and save the humanity from this perpetual threat.

Chief secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna gave a detailed report to the governor about the situation in the state and activities of different departments to mitigate the hardships being faced by the people.

Principal secretary health and family welfare Samir Sinha briefed the governor about the treatment management of Covid-19 and the health infrastructure and safety equipment pressed into service for the frontline personnel engaged treatment and other allied activities.

Director-general of police, Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, said strict action is being taken against the lockdown violations.