GUWAHATI/ BONGAIGAON, April 30 - Assam recorded five fresh COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours taking the total number of positive cases in the State to 42. Bongaigaon reported four more positive cases on Thursday, while one person from Karimganj, a secondary contact of a Nizamuddin Markaz visitor, also tested positive for COVID-19 tonight.
The four new cases in Bongaigaon takes the tally in the district to five, prompting the government to declare it as a red zone.
Of the four new patients, two are the residents of Bongaigaon town area and the other two are from Abhayapuri and Chaprakata area in the district. They have been identified as Anupam Thakuriya, Deepak Mallik, Babita Basfor and Meena Biswakarma.
Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was on a Bongaigaon tour today, said the source of the infection of the four patients is not yet known, but insisted that �it still cannot be termed as community transmission�.
�This is the first instance in the State when people without any known contact history with positive patient contracted the infection. However, it still cannot be described as a case of community transmission. We need to investigate further, if they came into contact with any suspected person,� Sarma said, urging the people in the district to be extremely cautious.
The new patients had flu like symptoms and their samples were sent for COVID-19 test to the Barpeta Medical College lab on suspicion.
�Even if we assume that Babita Basfor contracted the infection at the hospital which was also visited by a COVID-19 patient from Dhubri, the contact history of the other three is unknown so far,� the Minister said.
All the patients have been brought to MMCH in Guwahati for treatment.
With the four new cases, the number of cases in Bongaigaon rose to five and the district became the sixth in the State to be declared as red zone. A sixteen-year-old girl had tested positive a day before, and she is believed to have contracted the virus from her grandfather � a positive patient (Markaz returnee).
Sarma held a meeting with officials of various departments at Deputy Commissioner's office to review the lockdown situation of the district.
Of the four new cases, two are associated with government hospitals, the other is a vegetable vendor and the fourth is a 60-year old housewife, whose son is a railway employee and had a travel history, sources in health department said.
Their family members are being traced to keep them in isolation ward in the civil hospital at Bongaigaon, a health official said.
The 3-km area around the residences of the patients has been declared as containment zones by the administration. The lockdown scenario of the district is likely to change tomorrow considering the rise in number of positive cases.
The total number of cases in the state has risen to 41.
