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Assam Raj Bhavan, Secretariat, jail record Covid-19 cases as Kamrup Metro sees spike in infections despite lockdown
Admitting community spread of the virus, the Assam government had initially imposed 14-day total lockdown in Kamrup Metro from June 28 and extended it by another week later till July 19.
Assam’s biggest city Guwahati and rest of the Kamrup Metro district is witnessing an alarming spike in coronavirus disease (Covid-19) cases every day despite a total lockdown for over two weeks.
The district alone accounts for more than 9,000 of the 20,646 cases in the state and infections have been reported from almost all places including Raj Bhavan, Secretariat, central jail with senior bureaucrats, police officers, doctors and jail inmates contracting the viral disease.
Admitting community spread of the virus, the Assam government had initially imposed 14-day total lockdown in Kamrup Metro from June 28 and extended it by another week later till July 19. But that hasn’t helped in bringing down the number of cases.
Guwahati, as well as rest of Kamrup Metro, has been witnessing nearly 500 cases every day for the past few days. On Thursday, Assam recorded 892 new Covid-19 cases of which 598 were from Kamrup Metro alone. Till Thursday, the state had recorded 50 deaths—26 of them were from Kamrup Metro.
“We have been getting around 500-600 cases on an average daily since the past 10 days. The situation continues to be alarming. We were expecting that the Covid-19 curve would flatten, but that hasn’t happened yet,” Biswajit Pegu, deputy commissioner of Kamrup Metro, said.
“Our policy is to detect as many cases as possible and the good thing is we are detecting them. People are coming voluntarily to the screening centres and getting tested. We have tested over 50,000 people in the 31 screening centres in Guwahati and also did door-to-door tests in some localities,” he added.
Nearly 200 new cases are getting detected at the screening centres daily. But cases are also emerging from the Raj Bhavan, the state secretariat, hospitals and the central jail.
According to officials, around 200 inmates of the jail, which houses nearly 1,000 convicted and under trial prisoners, have tested positive for the coronavirus disease. The most prominent of them being peasant activist and founder of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) Akhil Gogoi, who is at present undergoing treatment.
Reports say nearly half a dozen senior bureaucrats posted at the state secretariat have tested positive and over 600 Assam Police personnel including two senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officials have also got infected.
Unconfirmed reports say around 30 doctors, posted in government and private hospitals, in Guwahati have also tested positive. Earlier this week, a senior doctor at Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) succumbed to Covid-19.
“A total of 45 people have been detected in Raj Bhavan till date but not all are staff members. Some are from security, intelligence, fire services etc. Governor Jagdish Mukhi and his wife had undergone tests, which came out negative,” Lucky Biswas, Raj Bhavan spokesperson, said.
Besides the six government hospitals treating coronavirus disease patients, the district has over a dozen Covid care centres (CCCs) where asymptomatic cases are being kept. New CCCs are being opened frequently to accommodate the rising number of cases.
Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Thursday in order to bring down infections in Kamrup Metro, the state government will conduct around three lakh tests by the end of August.
“Till now we have conducted around 1.10 lakh tests, we plan to complete another 1.90 lakh by next month. To achieve that we will employ 150 lab technicians and set up 60 more Covid screening centres besides the 31 we already have. Testing and tracing are keys to reducing numbers,” he said.
Sarma said the ongoing lockdown measures will be relaxed in a gradual manner over the next weeks to ensure there is no fresh spurt in cases.
