COVID-19 cases near 2,000-mark in Assam

(Eds: With fresh inputs)

Guwahati, Jun 4 () The number of COVID-19 cases is approaching the 2,000-mark in Assam with the addition of 158 fresh ones on Thursday, after the state recorded the highest single-day spurt of 269 cases the previous day, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The number of positive cases in the state is now 1,988, after the addition of 427 since Wednesday, while the death toll due the disease stands at four.

Hojai recorded the highest number of 79 cases on Thursday, Sarma said.

He added that 47 cases were reported from various districts in the evening, in addition to the 111 recorded earlier in the day.

Of the 111 cases reported earlier in the day, 46 were from Hojai, 28 from Udalguri, 11 from Kamrup, 10 from Nagaon, five from Morigaon, three each from Nalbari and Goalpara, two each from Golaghat and Jorhat and one from Dhubri.

Of the 47 cases reported in the evening, 33 were from Hojai, six from Dhemaji, four from Bongaigaon, three from Barpeta and one from Baksa.

Sarma said 29 patients were cured and released from various hospitals on Thursday, taking the total number of patients who have recovered from the disease in the state to 442.

Of the 1,988 cases, 1,539 are active, while 442 patients have recovered and have been discharged from hospitals, four have died and three have migrated from the state, he added.

Assam has witnessed a steep rise in the number of COVID-19 cases since inter-state movement began on May 4, with more than 1,800 cases detected since then.

Sample-testing facilities have increased in the state and the Assam government now aims at reduced institutional quarantine, increased home quarantine and further increase in testing during June, officials said.

Assam has so far tested 1,26,726 samples for COVID-19 with 1,830 of those turning out to be positive, 1,17,650 negative and the remaining results are awaited, according to the daily bulletin of the state Health and Family Welfare department.

The third flight under the Vande Bharat Mission carrying 69 passengers arrived from Ukraine's Kiev at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on Thursday, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) spokesperson said.

A repatriation flight from Russia carrying 37 passengers arrived on Wednesday and another from Kuwait with 155 passengers arrived on May 29.

Altogether 66 air passengers have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, including 30 from Kuwait, since flight operations resumed in the country on May 25.

Meanwhile, 62 passengers travelling in a Mumbai-Dibrugarh Shramik Special train tried to escape institutional quarantine by pulling the chain around 300 metres from the Hojai railway station on Wednesday.

A Railway Protection Force (RPF) team nabbed 57 of them from the spot and five others were picked up from their homes, police said. DG KK RC