DHUBRI, April 25 - State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday visited different parts of Dhubri district to take a stock on the preparedness in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic and inspected the work on mass quarantine centres that will come up on the Assam-Bengal border.
The government is building two mass quarantine centres in Dhubri district � one at Chagolia with up to 700 capacity and the other at Halakura with a capacity for 300. These two mass quarantine centres will be functional by May 4.
The minister said the government will build another mass quarantine centre at Srirampur of Kokrajhar district near the interstate entry gate for the travellers who would entre Assam on or after the withdrawal of nationwide lockdown.
�Our special emphasis is on Dhubri and Kokrajhar districts as they share border with West Bengal, where more than 500 COVID-19 positive cases have been detected,� Sarma said, adding, in the coming days more quarantine centres are needed to be constructed.
The minister also said that the health department will conduct more random tests for COVID-19 in Dhubri. �In the district we have got five COVID-19 positive cases, which we could detect after a duration of time... Therefore, we will do 50 more random sample tests each in the Bilasipara, Chapar and Dhubri areas,� he said.
The minister said it will provide information about infected persons other than those linked with the Nizamuddin and Athgaon religious congregations. He said swab samples for 150 random tests will be collected on Sunday.
�These samples will be tested at the medical college of Barpeta, and the results will be out within one day,� he said.
Sarma along with Minister of State for Health Pijush Hazarika, Tourism Minister Chandan Brahma, local MLAs and officials first visited Chapar, where the district�s first positive case was detected. Then he went to Bilasipara, where three such cases were detected. The minister also visited the quarantine centres in these areas.
Meanwhile, around 390 students from Assam, who were stranded at the country�s coaching hub Kota in Rajasthan, will arrive at Srirampur by tomorrow. �On their arrival, each of them will be medically screened at the border entry point,� Sarma said.
�Although they were quarantined at Kota, but as they are travelling now and have passed through several states, they might contract the infection. While those with no COVID-19 symptoms will be sent to the Sarusajai quarantine centre in Guwahati, the rest will be kept at the Srirampur quarantine centre till further order,� he said.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister clarified that the State government will not implement any relaxation for the next two days after the Central government relaxed some lockdown conditions by allowing more categories of shops to open.
�On April 27, a video conference will be held where the Prime Minister and the chief ministers of all the states will take part, and only after that, the State cabinet will take a call on further relaxation,� he said.
