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Assam’s Covid-19 tally doubles from 200 to past 400 in just 4 days
Of the coronavirus infections so far, more than 300 cases are of people who have returned to the state by roads and railways in the past three weeks. Till Sunday afternoon, nearly 60,000 people had entered Assam from other states in the region and across the country.
Assam’s tally of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) crossed the 400-mark with the detection of 35 new cases on Monday morning, officials said.
The state has seen a sudden surge in the number of cases in the past few days and it took just four days for the figure to double from the 200-mark to reach 428 with the new cases on Monday.
Assam recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 31 when a 52-year-old cancer patient was found infected with the virus. It took another 37 days for the figure to reach 50 on May 7 and just 10 days to double and reach the 100 figure mark on May 17.
The figure doubled again to reach 200 cases four days later on May 21 and it crossed 400 cases in another 4 days. The latest surge in positive cases has happened in past 7-10 days since the ban on inter-state movement was lifted on May 4.
Of the infections so far, more than 300 cases are of people who have returned to the state by roads and railways in the past three weeks. Till Sunday afternoon, nearly 60,000 people had entered Assam from other states in the region and across the country.
“The surge has happened in the past seven days and hence our recovery rate has dropped to 16% in comparison to the national figure of 41%,” health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
All of the state’s 33 districts have now recorded Cvovid-19 cases. Hojai with 86 cases leads the tally and Dhemaji, which recorded its first patient on Monday, is at the bottom with one case.
“Though there has been an increase, one positive aspect is that almost 90% of our total cases are of people who are in quarantine. We have adopted a policy of ruthless quarantine of 14 days for all returnees and it has helped prevent community outbreak of the disease,” said Sarma.
A community surveillance campaign by the state government covered 25,000 villages in the state and recorded around 23,000 cases of people with fever. Tests conducted on a section of them who showed Covid-19 like symptoms have come negative for all.
Sarma mentioned that a pro-active approach adopted in the last two months has helped Assam put an adequate infrastructure in place and at present, the state has the capacity to treat nearly 5,000 Covid-19 patients.
With the resumption of domestic flights from Monday, Assam is expected to get nearly 2,000 passengers daily and it would put additional burden on quarantine and testing facilities.
Barring few exceptions, the state has made 14 days institutional and home quarantine mandatory for all returnees including those who would be arriving by flights.
“There could be some issues in handling passengers at Guwahati airport on the first day. But that would get streamlined in the next few days,” Sarma said.
