GUWAHATI, May 27 - A flight passenger and a laboratory technician deployed at the Sarusajai quarantine centre were among the 92 persons who tested positive for COVID-19 during the day, taking the State�s coronavirus tally to 774.
The COVID-19 positive flight passenger � a female from Guwahati � had arrived here from Ahmedabad. She has been admitted at the MMCH. All her co-passengers are in quarantine now.
Pushpa Kalita, a laboratory technician of Maloibari PHC, who was deployed at the Sarusajai quarantine centre, also tested positive for COVID-19. Originally from Chhaygaon, Kalita had visited his rented accommodation at Lakhitari in Khetri yesterday, prompting the administration to declare the area as containment zone.
The Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital and the Kalapahar TB Hospital in Guwahati exhausted their capacities to admit further patients. The State health department has shifted the new patients to the Sonapur District Hospital.
Around 119 patients are under treatment at the MMCH while 121 are admitted at the TB Hospital in Kalapahar.
�The Sonapur District Hospital, which has been readied, is functional now with 108 beds. I and MoS Pijush Hazarika visited the hospital and supervised shifting of first nine patients here,� Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. There are 108 beds at the Sonapur hospital.
The new 200-bed Covid hospital being set up at GMCH is expected to be ready in a couple of days. The government is also planning to convert the Jalukbari Ayurvedic College hospital into a Covid treatment facility.
Barring one case, all other patients who tested positive for the novel coronavirus since yesterday were from quarantine centres, the Health Minister claimed.
�One person in Karimganj was not in quarantine. He had a Meghalaya travel history. He was found to have fever during community surveillance and his test results came positive,� the minister said.
Meanwhile, a microbiology lab is being set up at the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Boragaon in Guwahati. It is an annexe of Guwahati Medical College and it is expected to increase the sample testing for COVID-19 to a large extent. The lab will start functioning soon, the minister said.
Besides, a lab is also coming up at CSIR � North East Institute of Science and Technology (formerly RRL) in Jorhat. An additional lab is also coming up at the GMCH and another at Diphu. �When these labs are ready, we will be able to do around 5,000 tests every day,� Sarma said.
Meanwhile, 25 patients have been discharged in Assam today after being tested negative for COVID-19 twice. Among them, 22 are from MMCH, two from SMCH and one from JMCH.
(With inputs from Jorabat Correspondent)