TEZPUR, May 10 - Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma today visited the Zonal Health Screening Centre, quarantine facility set up within the Tezpur University campus and inspected the facilities made available for screening, registration and testing of all passengers returning from outside the state.
He was accompanied by MP Pallab Lochan Das, Minister of State, H&FW Pijush Hazarika, MLAs, senior officials of the Health Department, and Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh, among others.
To contain the spread of COVID-19, and as per directions received from the state Department of Health, the Sonitpur district administration had set up a Zonal Screening Centre in Tezpur Central University at Napaam to screen all people belonging to the five districts falling under the North Assam Division, ie., Udalguri, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts who return from outside the state. The Minister first inspected the screening centre set up at the Community Hall being used for screening of passengers and then the Kendriya Vidyalaya which has been used to set up an institutional quarantine facility with 250 people capacity.
He later had a brief meeting with senior district and health department officials along with top administrators of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital and issued necessary directives to ensure proper screening and registration and subsequent monitoring of all people who report at the venue.
The Minister also interacted with the Vice-Chancellor of Tezpur Central University Dr VK Jain and informed him that the quarantine facility at KV will not be used to house any COVID-19 positive patient, but will only be used for screening and observation of all inbound people. All COVID-19 positive patients will be kept and treated at the Isolation Ward of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital or other dedicated Covid-19 hospitals identified for the purpose.
Dr Sarma assured him that the Government will take all precautionary measures for the safety and security of the residents of the campus.
Later, briefing the media about various steps taken to deal with the current situation prevailing due to COVID-19 pandemic, Dr Sarma said that community transmission has not happened in Assam till date.
�When more than 100 people are infected, then it will be known as community transmission,� he said, adding that general screening will not be done at the quarantine centres from now onwards. Only the swab will be taken from people coming from outside. He also said that people stranded outside the state are in a very precarious condition for which as per the central government�s direction, the state is taking initiative to bring back them to their homes.
On the other hand, he assured that more precautionary measures would be taken in the quarantine centres. �It is time to face the challenge and we will have to be more cautious. Uptil now, a total of 126 people have been tested in the TU Zonal Screening Centre,� he mentioned.
