Two weeks after inter-state travel resumed, Assam has seen a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases with the tally nearing a hundred.
Since Saturday, seven people including a nine-year-old boy who returned from New Delhi few days ago have tested positive taking Assam’s total to 98 cases (including one from Nagaland tested and treated in Guwahati).
While 42 people have recovered, two patients have died and 51 are under treatment. Two patients have migrated to West Bengal and Bihar.
According to official figures, till Sunday afternoon 23 people who had returned to Assam by road and rail, since inter-state movement of people resumed on May 4, have tested positive for Covid-19.
Assam recorded its first positive case on March 31 when a 52-year-old cancer patient was found infected with coronavirus. It took another 37 days for the figure to reach 50 on May 7 and just 10 more days to double and near the three-figure mark.
Till Sunday, 20 of the state’s 33 districts had recorded Covid-19 cases. Of them 14 have active cases at present with Kamrup (Metro), where the state’s biggest city Guwahati is located, topping the tally with 23 cases.
Significantly, till April 30 – a month since the first infection was detected-Assam had 43 positive cases. After that there was a lull five days when the next case was recorded on May 5, a day after inter-state movement was allowed. Since then, the state has recorded new cases almost daily.
While the inter-state movement of people is believed to be a reason for the spike, one person who used to work in a potato warehouse in Guwahati has been linked to many positive cases in recent days.
The man was tested positive on May 7, turned out to be a super spreader, infecting 17 people he came in contact with. It is not yet known where and how he contracted the virus.
Assam on Thursday released a fresh set of standard operating procedures to be followed while dealing with persons returning to the state from other parts of the country.
The procedures list out how passengers will be dealt with once they enter Assam and get down at various stations. Officials have been asked to follow the rules on transportation, screening, testing and quarantine for the passengers.
“Anyone found symptomatic will be segregated and taken to hospitals for tests. Others will be allowed to go to their home districts where they will be placed in institutional quarantine for at least 14 days,” health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said on Thursday.
Passengers over 75 years, children below 10 years and their families, pregnant women and persons with disabilities will be allowed to go to their homes where they as well as their family members will have to keep themselves quarantined for 14 days.
Abandoning its earlier plan to turn schools and colleges into quarantine facilities, the government has now decided to requisition hotels, lodges etc. and keep passengers there. The cost of rent and food will be borne by the state government, Sarma said.
