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Assam reports first case of coronavirus, carries out aggressive testing
The 52-year-old man is now under treatment at the Silchar Medical College Hospital in southern Assam.
Assam on Tuesday joined the long list of states hit by coronavirus after a 52-year old man tested positive as the pandemic continued to expand its footprints in India.
This is the third positive case in the northeast, after one each was recorded in Manipur and Mizoram last week.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter to break the news on Tuesday evening informing that the patient is now at Silchar Medical College Hospital in Cachar district of Barak Valley.
“A 52-year-old person has been found positive for coronavirus and is Assam’s first Covid-19 patient. He is undergoing treatment at Silchar Medical College. His condition is stable,” Sarma tweeted.
Sarma told a local news channel that the patient had first shown symptoms of Covid-18 on March 18. There are unconfirmed reports that he had gone for treatment of another disease to Delhi and had returned to Assam on March 11.
“The patient was under our notice since Monday and we sent his samples to NIV, Pune to confirm. We have taken his travel history and done contact-tracing. The persons who were in contact with him have already been either quarantined or kept in isolation. So there is no need to panic,” he said.
Sarma said that the details of the patient, his travel history and list of persons he may have come in contact will be made available officially on Wednesday.
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According to Assam government, a total of 356 people from the state were present “in and around” Tablighi Jamat gathering at Hazrat Nizamuddin in Delhi. Test samples from those who returned to the state have been taken and their results are awaited.
“On Wednesday evening we are likely to receive the test results of those persons who had returned from Nizamuddin. We will be able to know the status of Covid-19 spread in Assam only after the results arrive,” Sarma said.
Last week, a 23-year-old student who returned to Manipur from UK was found Covid-19 positive—making her the first patient in northeast. She is under treatment at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal and is stated to be in stable condition.
This was followed by a 50-year-old pastor from Mizoram, who had returned this month from Netherlands and tested positive for the virus. He is at present under treatment in Aizawl.
The four other states in the region - Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh are still free of coronavirus.
