GUWAHATI: As many as 25,000 villages have been covered under community surveillance programme undertaken by the Assam government with not a single COVID-19 case detected in any village so far.
“Our health teams have so far visited 25,000 villages across the state and have found about 23,000 people with fever symptoms. So far we have collected 4000 samples from 6000 people with severe acute respiratory illness and influenza-like illness so far, but till date, we have not detected any COVID-19 positive case,” state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday.
Sarma said the government’s policy of “ruthless” quarantine of returnees to the state has yielded positive results given that “our villages are still free from COVID so far”.
Currently, about 60,000 persons are under facility and home quarantine in the state.
The number of COVID cases in Assam has substantially risen in the past few days. As on Sunday evening (8pm), the tally of COVID-positive cases has gone up to 378 in the state.
“About 90 per cent of the cases have been detected in the quarantine centres. As a result of the strict quarantine protocols we have not only contained the number of cases but have also prevented the spread of the virus to the rural areas,” he said.
It may be noted that village and constituency-level committees have been constituted to ensure strict home quarantine in the districts.
