GUWAHATI, July 31: The overall COVID-19-induced death tally in the State increased to 98 with four more persons succumbing to the infection in the last 24 hours.
Those who passed away today were Manik Saha (68) of Hojai, Minu Banik (30) of Kamrup Metro, Gopal Das (68) of Jorhat and Bijay Sarkar (59) of Dibrugarh.
Meanwhile, the number of COVID-19 patients in the State continues to surge even as the two-day relaxation for inter-district travel ended today. Today, as many as 28 Upper Assam-bound buses left from the Inter-State Bus Terminus with only 50 per cent of the total capacity on board.
Meanwhile, former minister and senior Congress leader Dr Nazrul Islam too tested positive for COVID-19. Dr Islam has been allowed to remain in home quarantine for the next 14 days.
Sources informed that the State government is very soon going to make a detailed announcement on the possible relaxations during the Unlock 2.
�Not much is expected to change compared to the relaxations already in place. The health department does not want to lose whatever grip it has achieved on community transmission till now,� a health department source said.
Although the situation in Guwahati has more or less improved, the rate of increase of positive cases in several other districts is quite alarming.
The total number of COVID-19 patients jumped to 40,269 in the State today with the detection of 1,862 new cases, of which 281 were from Kamrup Metro. In the last 24 hours, 38,324 swab tests were carried out across the State.
In Guwahati till Thursday, 42,343 rapid antigen tests have been done, of which 4,836 tested positive taking the positivity rate to 11.42 per cent. Till Friday, 14,341 Guwahatians have tested positive for the COVID-19, of which 8,989 have recovered.
Of the overall 98 COVID-19 patients who had lost their lives�till�date, 41 were from Guwahati.
In the Assam Police, 1,426 personnel have been infected by the virus so far. While 1,048 have recovered, four of them succumbed to the infection.