GUWAHATI, May 7 - Eight more persons tested positive for COVID-19 in Assam on Thursday, taking the total number of cases in the State to 53.
While four persons tested positive for the virus in Guwahati, the other four are from Silchar. Among the COVID-19 positive patients from Guwahati, one recently came from outside the State and was in home quarantine. The other three had no travel history.
The four from Silchar were co-passengers of Faridul Islam � who tested positive for the virus yesterday � in the same bus on which a total of 42 people, including seven children, arrived Silchar from Ajmer in Rajasthan.
The latest development has led to several places in the Cachar district headquarters being notified as containment zones.
With asymptomatic Faridul Islam testing positive for COVID-19, the Assam government has decided to put under mandatory quarantine all those arriving from red zone areas till they are tested for the novel coronavirus. As the government has allowed return of stranded people to their respective states, Assam had been advising home quarantine for asymptomatic returnees.
�However, from now on, all those who return from red zone areas, even if asymptomatic, will be under facility quarantine till we are sure that they are not carrying the virus,� Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
This decision will also result in limiting the number of people entering the State every day.
�We will restrict the number of passes every day as we do not have sufficient institutional quarantine facilities. The number of people who will be allowed entry every day will depend on the capacity of the testing labs,� he said.
So far, passes have been issued to 2,056 people returning to the State in their own vehicles, and passes for another 3,420 are under process.
Yesterday, Faridul Islam, who had visited Ajmer Sharif Dargah, reached Silchar along with 41 others in a bus that was issued a pass by the administration of the Rajasthan district.
�It is surprising how the DC allowed 35 adults and seven children to travel in one bus. All were sent to home quarantine initially and the samples of this person were taken on suspicion and it turned out to be positive for COVID-19. Now, the remaining 41 have been brought to facility quarantine and tests are being conducted,� Sarma said.
Meanwhile, the State health department today launched a community surveillance programme that aims to reach out to 25,000 villages in 25 days.
Teams of ASHA/ANM/MPW workers along with doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians will visit villages and closely monitor people with respiratory syndromes and influenza-like illness (ILI). �While the teams will also carry malaria and Japanese encephalitis medicines, samples of persons will be collected for COVID-19 tests if the doctors feel it was required,� Sarma said.
With stranded people beginning to return, the minister said the State was entering a �challenging phase� and urged the people not to come out of their homes unless it was important even though relaxations have been announced.
