One more person who attended the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Delhi, which has emerged as a big cluster of coronavirus cases, tested positive for the virus in Assam on Monday, taking the total number of cases in the state to 30, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Sarma said 29 of the total cases, including the one who died, are linked to the Jamaat congregation in Nizamuddin last month.
All these patients and their contacts have been either quarantined or isolated, Sarma said and hoped with this, the cases linked to the Jamaat meet would "close" in five to seven days.
"We have been able to quarantine each and every person connected to the event," the minister said at a press conference here.
The man who tested positive on Monday hails from Dhubri, the third confirmed case from that district and all of them linked to the Tablighi meet, the minister said.
The35-year old had returned from Delhi by a flight on March 21 and gone to Dhubri by bus. He informed authorities about his travel history and a visit to Nizamuddin.
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He was quarantined but later developed symptoms and was kept in isolation at Barpeta Medical College Hospital. After he tested positive, he was shifted to Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here.
Assam has tested 3,209 samples. Of them, 1,421 are connected to the Nizamuddin congregation and 34 results are awaited, the minister said.
Besides its own 30 confirmed cases, a Nagaland resident has also tested positive in Guwahati Medical College Hospital and is undergoing treatment here.
The 33-year old, who tested positive last night, had travelled from Kolkata to Dimapur on March 24 and was referred to GMCH on March 11. He was brought here in an ambulance and his father and the ambulance driver have been quarantined at MMCH.
Among the confirmed cases in Assam, Golaghat accounts for nine,the highest in the state, four each from Nalbari and Morigaon, three each from Dhubri and Goalpara, two from Silchar while Hailakandi, Kamrup (M), Kamrup, Lakhimpur and South Salmara having one case each.
"The condition of all positive cases, except a cancer patient who was the first to test positive in Silchar, is stable and we may be able to release them gradually after April 15,if their condition do not deteriorate," Sarma said.
The repeat testing of these patients will begin from Tuesday, he added.
The situation, however, is still trying and "this is a short-term challenge that we are dealing with, he said. We will face another major challenge when those who are still outside the state return home and the final challenge will emerge with the onset of winter.
The health department is formulating a plan for the next year to enhance the health infrastructure in the state and this will be announced in a few days, he said.
The minister said the situation is being monitored constantly and soon the department will have to take a decision regarding the three major hospitals which have been converted into exclusive COVID-19 hospitals.
"Many hesitate to go to private hospitals even though we have signed MoUs regarding their treatment under Atal Amrit Yojana and Ayushman Bharat and we will have to take a decision to reopen these hospitals for the general patients by the end of this month, he said.
The state is comfortably placed as far as PPEs and masks are concerned with the Reliance Industries Limited donating ten thousand PPEs to Assam on Monday, Sarma said.
"The PPEs are of very high quality and on behalf of the state government, I thank RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani for the kind gesture, he said.
The state currently has a stock of 85,582 PPEs, 91,000 N95 masks and more than50 lakh triple layer masks, the minister said.
"We have decided to cap the stock of PPEs at two lakh. We started with 10 PPEs and though we are still acquiring it but will stop after achieving the target of two lakh as we do not want to spend public money beyond that, he said.
The government has also planned to give three triple- layer masks to each tea garden workers who have startedworking from Monday, he said.
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