The Assam government on Friday declared three of its districts as total containment zones to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. The new restrictions, which would be applicable from Monday and continue for a week, were announced after chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a meeting with deputy commissioners to review the situation.
“We found that 247 localities or regions had over 10% test positivity rate in the past week. These areas will be declared as total containment zones with immediate effect,” said health minister Keshab Mahanta.
Mahanta described the situation in four districts, Biswanath, Goalpara, Morigaon and Golaghat, as alarming. “Of these, Biswanath, Goalpara and Morigaon, will be declared a total containment zone for a week beginning Monday,” he added.
In Kamrup (Metropolitan) district, which includes Guwahati, curfew will be relaxed by two hours. From Monday, the district will have curfew from 5 am to 4 pm daily. Shops, offices and business establishments will have to shut down an hour earlier, at 3 pm.
In Hailakandi district curfew would remain from 5am to 5pm daily. In all other districts, curfew will be applicable from 5am to 1pm daily. The ban on inter-district movement will continue.
“Those who took two doses of Covid vaccine won’t have to undergo tests at airports, railway stations from now on. They would be allowed to proceed on furnishing their certificates,” said Mahanta.
{{/usCountry}}“Those who took two doses of Covid vaccine won’t have to undergo tests at airports, railway stations from now on. They would be allowed to proceed on furnishing their certificates,” said Mahanta.
{{/usCountry}}Government employees who have taken one dose will have to come to office from now. Employees who are pregnant, women employees who have children under 5 years and those with disabilities are exempt from this order but they have to work from home.
“We have urged frontline government employees who deal with the public to get vaccinated immediately and provisions have been made to ensure they get their doses,” the minister said, adding that their salary would be held back if they don’t get vaccinated.
“Every month we collect 300 samples from the 10 government labs in Assam and send them to the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in Kolkata. Our reports for April and May indicate that 77% of the samples were of Delta variant. Only one of those affected with Delta variant has died and all others have recovered,” Mahanta added.
On Friday, Assam recorded 2793 new cases and 26 deaths. The test positivity rate in the state was 2.01%.