Assam reports 235 fresh COVID-19 cases; tally rises to 3,285
A 67-year cancer patient, who had recently returned from Mumbai, died at the Tezpur Medical College Hospital on Wednesday.
This is the second death in a week with another person with a travel history to Chennai dying in Karbi Anglong on Monday.
Of the 235 new cases, 193 cases were reported late in the night and 42 during the day, the minister said.
Meanwhile, 152 patients were discharged from various civil, district and model hospitals in the state on Wednesday, taking the total number of patients cured and released to 1,249, Sarma said.
The highest single day release of 313 cured patients was reported on Tuesday.
Of the total 3,285 cases, there are 2,027 active cases, and six deaths. A total of 1,249 people have been cured and discharged from hospitals and three persons migrated out of the state.
Assam has witnessed a surge in COVID-19 positive cases since inter-state movement of people began with more than 3,000 cases added since May 4. The figures increased rapidly since the last week of May.
On May 4, there were only 42 reported cases in the state and it crossed the 100-mark on May 17 reaching the 500-mark on May 25. The 1,000-mark was crossed in four days on May 29, the 2,000-mark on June 4 and more than 1,000 cases were added in five days to cross the 3,000-mark on June 9.
The Assam government's aim was now for reduced institutional quarantine, increased home quarantine and further increase in testing during June.
Assam has so far tested 1,69,842 samples till date and out of these 3,050 have tested positive, 1,59,7600 tested negative and the remaining results are awaited, the state Health and Family Welfare Department said in its daily bulletin.
Meanwhile, the health department will conduct the second round of the Assam Community Surveillance Programme (ACSP) covering all villages and wards of the state.
In view of the current COVID-19 outbreak and to check its spread in the community, the health workers will visit people in their homes to identify flu like cases and respiratory infections like Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) and Influenza Like Illness (ILI), an official release said.
The health workers will also check for other vector borne diseases like Japanese Encephalitis, malaria and dengue as the flood season has also started.
The first round of the community surveillance was held last month and 29,771 villages were covered with only 26,000 people showing signs of fever, but not a single COVID-19 positive case was reported from the community, the minister had said earlier.
DG SRY