No community transmission on COVID-19, blame it on home coming: Himanta

GUWAHATI: In the wake of detection of over 1270 COVID-19 positive cases in the state, the Health Minister of Assam, Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday asserted that there was no community transmission of COVID-19 in the state and close to 1200 cases so far are imported from outside the state.

“There has been no instance of community transmission of COVID-19 in Assam barring a single case in Digboi while 24 cases detected in the state have no travel history,” Dr Sarma told media here on Sunday evening.

He said as on date out of the 1272 COVID-19 cases in the state so far, 1124 were detected among the people who returned to the state by road or railway after May 4 from other states.

Thirty-six COVID-19 cases were directly related to Tablighi Jamaat while another 32 cases were indirectly related to Tablighi Jamaat, according to the Heath Minister.

He said 333 returnees from Tamil Nadu, 312 from Maharashtra, 134 from Delhi, 111 from Bengal, 57 from Haryana, 57 from Uttar Pradesh, 31 from Rajasthan, 24 from Karnataka, 25 from Telangana, nine from Bihar, nine from Andhra Pradesh, four from Madhya Pradesh, one from Jharkhand and one from Saudi Arabia have tested positive for COVID-19 in Assam.

“So, people of the state should be more alert about efficient home quarantine for those who have returned from Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal,” Dr Sarma said adding that the government is going to activate the village level quarantine committees further for efficient monitoring of home quarantine to arrest community spread of the disease.