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COVID-19 cases in State jump to 539

By Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, May 25 - Altogether 147 positive cases were reported on Monday as the COVID-19 count in the Assam reached 539. As many as 53 positive cases reported today were from quarantine centres in Golaghat. With flight services resuming today and more trains carrying stranded people expected to arrive in the coming days, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the next few days will be �tough�.

�The situation in the next one week-ten days will be tough. But the government is prepared for it,� he said.

Sarma said the State government wanted to close this COVID-19 �chapter� as early as possible.

�We want that people should come and close this chapter as early as possible. If this goes on, things will continue to linger. We want people to come � whosoever wants to come - by June 10. Then we will have some days thereafter. So, by June 30 we will be able to close this chapter because from July we will have to prepare for the floods,� Sarma said after overseeing the resumption of flight operations at LGBI airport today.

�If carriers want to bring more people� let them bring. We do not want to impose any rationing,� he added.

Meanwhile, five patients were discharged today after successive negative tests for COVID-19. Three are from Guwahati Medical College Hospital and two from Jorhat Medical College.

Thirteen year old Champa Bora who had tested positive after returning from Mumbai was among the patients released today.

Resident of Golaghat, Champa had undergone an open-heart surgery under a government sponsored scheme at a hospital in Mumbai after which she was stranded there. She returned in the buses along with some cancer patients and their attendants from Mumbai.

�After she tested positive, she was admitted at GMCH. Her mother too stayed with her in a cabin. However, despite staying with the child for eleven days, the mother was not infected,� the Health Minister said.

There were 30 patients under treatment at GMCH, of which eight have been discharged so far.

The total number of discharged patients has gone up to 62.

Meanwhile, setting aside speculations that Sarusajai Quarantine Centre was soon turning into a COVID-19 hotspot, the Health Minister clarified that all swabs are collected from people soon after they arrive from outstation. Subsequently, they are transferred to the quarantine centres. �Therefore, most of the positive cases in Assam are imported and not home-grown,� he said.

�Also, all registrations are being done at Sarusajai and then the people are taken to the different quarantine centres in the city. Among the people quarantined at Sarusajai, we have got only about three/ four positive cases. Also, Sarusajai is catering to four districts, not just Kamrup metro� he added.

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