Three patients have recovered
from COVID-19, taking the total number of cured persons in Assam to 12, Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.
He said the three cured persons were released from hospital on Saturday. The state has 34 COVID-19 cases.
One person was released from Silchar Medical College and Hospital after three successive tests were negative while two were released from Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in Guwahati after their four successive tests came as negative, the minister said at a press conference here.
All the three patients will now be sent for home quarantine, the minister said.
The total cured patients in Assam now stands at 12 with four released from Golaghat Civil Hospital on Friday, three from Goalpara Civil Hospital on Thursday, two from Sonapur District Hospital, two from MMCH in Guwahati and one from Silchar Medical Hospital on Saturday.
Currently, 21 positive persons from the state are under treatment while another person hailing from Nagaland tested positive at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital where he is undergoing treatment.
Some more patients are likely to be released on Sunday and the day after, he said.
Sarma said that till Saturday 4,400 samples have been tested, 34 of these tested positive and 4199 are negative while 167 results are awaited.
"We were so far testing only throat sample but have now decided to take both nasal and throat samples to detect the virus at the initial stage", the minister said.
Assam has adopted a three-pronged strategy regarding testing and this includes those with contact history, travel history and those with symptoms, he said.
"We are conducting 150 to 200 tests daily and if we get the rapid testing kits from the Centre, we plan to test those coming to hospitals and not on the community in general", he said.
There are plans to reopen from April 25, the three Medical College and Hospitals at Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Silchar, which were turned into exclusive COVID-19 hospitals, for general patients from April 25 and then "we will conduct tests on patients coming to the hospital", he said.
"Assam has broken the chain between society and the positive patients and their contacts who have been quarantined. We are in a comfortable and stable zone as far as the first stage is concerned", Sarma said.
The concern is for the second stage when those from the state stranded in other states with high cases return after the lockdown is lifted, he said.
"We are working on ways to tackle the situation with enhanced medical facilities to save Assam from the second wave of Corona when these people and their families return to the state", the minister said.
Altogether 84,000 people have been quarantined in the state with 72,874 having passed the mandatory period, he said.
Around 2,954 persons were kept in quarantine facilities and out of these 1442 have been released so far. 705 people were quarantined and then hospitalised and of these 98 are still in hospitals while the rest have been released, Sarma said.
Currently, 12,000 people are in home quarantine, he added.
"The family members of the 34 persons, who tested positive, have to be in quarantine for a mandatory period of 28 days", the minister added,
Golaghat with nine patients, Morigaon with six and Dhubri, Goalpara and Nalbari with four patients each have been identified as Red Zones or the five hotspot districts of Assam, while the seven other districts with positive cases are the non-hotspot zones, he said.
The state government has deposited Rs 25,000 each to families of 725 critical cancer, heart surgeries, kidney and liver transplant patients undergoing treatment outside the state while 4,32,383 financially weak people from Assam living in other states have called up for financial assistance to tide over the lockdown and their claims are being verified.
The state government has already transferred the first instalment of one thousand US dollars to people who had gone abroad temporarily and the second instalment will be paid by next week.
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