GUWAHATI, May 26 - As the COVID-19 count in Assam reached 643 following a spike over the last few days, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today urged the people of the State to �hold on� for another 20 days to ensure that there is no community transmission of the virus.
�We feel that the number of returnees from outside will gradually come down after June 10-15. So we just need to hold on for another 20 days. If we can do this, we will be able to prevent community transmission,� Sarma told journalists here.
Around two lakh people stranded outside the State had registered with the government expressing their willingness to return. Some one lakh have returned already.
He said during this period, even if the government is forced to take certain decisions, like requisition of colleges and university hostels, people should not object.
Meanwhile, the government is closely examining two recent developments � one is the spike of cases in Golaghat district and the other of a bus whose 17 passengers have tested positive in Lakhimpur district.
Around 120 youths travelling in the Shramik Special train from Chennai have tested positive. The youths had got down at Mariani and thereafter had travelled to Golaghat where they were put in quarantine centres.
Over 70 youths from Golaghat alone � all passengers in that particular train � have tested positive for COVID-19, triggering speculations that most of them were infected during the train journey.
Another set of youths who had travelled in a different train � that too from Chennai � have also tested positive. They deboarded in Guwahati and had travelled to Lakhimpur in a bus on May 22. Seventeen of 25 youths on the bus have tested positive for the virus. The patients have been transferred from the quarantine centre to a hospital.
�These two incidents are in our knowledge... and we are closely examining them. We cannot say conclusively that they were infected during the journey. We will have to wait till they test negative. When they test negative, we will have to do a back calculation... they were infected 10-12 days from the date they test negative,� the minister said.
Sarma also noted with concern issues of violation of social distancing norms at the quarantine centres which was forcing the government to extend the quarantine period of the returnees at many places like Maniram Dewan Trade Centre, Sarusajai Extension I, etc.
