GUWAHATI, Nov 28 - The Government of Assam is not ruling out the possibility of a second wave of COVID-19 infections in the State.
�Even the first wave of infections was late in Assam. When several states are reporting a spike in cases, we cannot remain in isolation,� a senior health department official said.
Most of the new cases in the State now are being detected among passengers coming from outside and contact-tracing of the positive patients.
�States like Delhi are reporting the spike in the post-festive season. However, in Assam, the post-festive season did not see any spike in infections. But we are now worried about the movement of people from states like Delhi. Another worry is the BTC elections and the crowds at the poll campaigns,� the official said.
The State government has stepped up screening at the railway stations and airports. Trains and flights from Delhi are being specially monitored.
Sources said a sero-survey was conducted in three districts of Assam � Kamrup Metro, Nalbari and Karbi Anglong � but it failed to provide the government with any worthy insight on the prevalence of the infection and possibility of development of herd immunity as the sample size was very small.
Doctors too are not ruling out a second wave, �even though it might not be as intense as the first�.
�A wave comes suddenly. We fear a spike in cases next month, but the total cases may not be as high as the State had witnessed during the peak of the first wave,� a senior doctor said.
The State is also worried that besides other mainland states, even Manipur is showing a spike in cases of late. The neighbouring state has imposed night curfew till the year-end.
The number of active cases in the country dropped marginally after three straight days of increase as India � the world�s second worst infected country � reported 41,000 new cases in 24 hours (up to 8 am of Saturday), taking the caseload to 93.5 lakh.
While Delhi continued to report the highest number of fatalities, Maharashtra yesterday registered the highest tally of fresh cases in over a month�s time. Gujarat also reported the highest daily count in the state so far, while the virus was also rising in states like Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
On Friday, 149 new cases were detected in Assam out of 25,844 tests done at a positivity rate of 0.58 per cent. The State�s COVID-19 tally stood at 2,12,320, but active cases dropped to 3,272. The death toll is 980.
