GUWAHATI: Assam health and family minister welfare minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that the state has broken the chain of transmission of coronavirus cases during the “first wave” as the positive cases so far were only traced among people who were under home or facility quarantine.
Addressing reporters here on Saturday evening, Sarma said that the curve in regard to the number of COVID-19 cases has flattened and that the state was currently in a comfortable position so far as the “first wave” was concerned.
“We can say that that Assam is currently in stable zone in regard to containment of coronavirus cases. However, a bigger challenge awaits us as an estimated 15 lakh people who are outside Assam are likely to enter the state once the lockdown is lifted. So far, under the ambit of AssamCare, we have traced calls made by 4,32,383 persons outside Assam and belonging to economically disadvantaged category, for who we will provide a subsistence allowance,” the minister said.
Describing the situation as very demanding, he said that arrangement of facilities to quarantine, screen, and test such a large number of people would require a systematic approach in order to prevent a “second wave” of infections in the state.
The minister informed that as many as 4400 samples, including those sent from Meghalaya and Mizoram, have been collected from suspected persons and tested in the state. “So far, 34 have tested positive (of which one expired), 4199 tested negative while the results of 167 samples are awaited,” he said.
About 150 to 200 are tests are being conducted per day, the minister informed.
Sarma also said that compared to other states, Assam was moderately placed in terms of tests per million people. “We are currently conducting 121 tests per 10,00000 people. However, once rapid tests, which we are contemplating to introduce in our hospitals, are conducted the rate of tests will go up significantly,” he said.
Assam currently has six ICMR-accredited (VDRL) labs for testing samples for the virus.
“We are following the Centre prescribed containment plan. With the accreditation of the lab at Tezpur Medical College a couple of days back, we have also started catering to cases in Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
