COVID-19 cases in Assam cross 5,000-mark; 102 new patients found

Guwahati, Jun 19 () Assam breached the 5,000-mark in the number of COVID-19 cases with 102 more people testing positive on Friday, the state's Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

With these, the total number of cases in Assam reached 5,006 from 4,904 on Thursday. The state has 1,928 active cases, Sarma said in a tweet.

"Alert ~ 102 new #COVID19+ cases detected... Over 61% of the total patients are back home. The remaining shall soon go back. Our testing continues," he added.

During the day, 218 people were discharged from various hospitals across the state after they tested negative for COVID-19, Sarma informed in a series of tweets.

"Today our discharge numbers cross 3000! So heartening to see so many people going back to their homes," he added.

So far, nine patients have died due to the deadly disease, while 3,066 have been cured and were discharged from hospitals, Sarma said.

Besides, three more patients have migrated to other states, the Minister informed.

Sarma also said in a separate tweet that the Jalukbari Ayurvedic College in Guwahati has been renovated into a full-fledged 110-bedded COVID-19 hospital.

He also said: "This pandemic has exposed us to new set of challenges. We need to upgrade our learnings as we begin to comprehend the virus better. We shall soon have a lab at MMCH to study #coronavirus and #COVID19."

Sarma said the state conducted over 12,000 tests for COVID-19 during the last 24 hours.

"My salute to the Team for having covered over 12,000 more tests, taking our #COVID19 testing figures for today to 2,58,797. It was 2,46,590 on June 18," he added.

After inter-state movement through road, rail and air communication was allowed during the lockdown period, Assam saw manifold spike in COVID-19 cases.

To screen all the people coming from outside the state, the government has imposed a mandatory institutional quarantine policy for everyone, barring some exceptions. TR NSD RDM RDM