GUWAHATI, June 6 - Even as the COVID-19 cases continued to surge in the State touching 2,397 on Saturday, Assam�s health department has reiterated that there was no instance of community transmission of the virus as yet.
�Those patients who do not have travel history are isolated cases. May be at some point of time, unknowingly they came into contact with some positive person,� a health department official said.
At least 28 patients in the State do not have any travel history and their source of infection unknown.
The official said the government anticipates that the cases would continue to surge for another 15/20 days as people are continuing to return from outside the State. �It should stabilize after that, and the daily number of cases would go down,� the official added.
Health department sources also said only a handful of patients required intensive treatment and the increasing rate of discharge was good sign.
�One patient was put on ventilator. A few required oxygen support, but that too for a day or two. Later, they stabilized,� the official said.
Last night, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma too had said detection of a few cases in persons who do not have travel history does not mean the State had entered Stage III.
�We are getting such instances since Manish Tibrewal. But that does not mean it has spread in the community in Guwahati. The primary contacts of these positive persons had tested negative for the virus. In Stage III, we will get 200/300 cases from one area,� Sarma said.
He, however, quickly added that one needs to be cautious and alert even though the State is at Stage II.
Meanwhile, 79 patients were also discharged during the day. The total number of patients discharged so far now stands at 588.
