The biggest daily surge of 285 cases on Thursday saw Assam’s COVID-19 positive count double in less than a week to 2,153.
Of these, 1,687 were active cases, 459 discharged while four had died and three migrated to other States.
The first positive case in Assam was detected on March 31. The count crossed the 1,000 mark on May 29 and more than doubled by noon on Thursday, when Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma updated the tally.
“There is no community spread of the novel coronavirus yet. The primary reason for the surge is the return of more than 2.5 lakh people from across the country after the ban on inter-State movement was lifted on May 4 and domestic flights resumed on May 25,” Mr. Sarma said.
Testing ramped up
Another reason for the higher numbers, Health officials said, was the ramping up of testing facilities. According to Mr. Sarma, Assam can test almost 10,000 samples a day at seven authorised government laboratories. Having tested more than 1,33,100 samples so far, the government wants to test two lakh samples by June 15.
Assam has a policy of mandatory testing of all returnees, who are required to undergo 14 days of institutional and home quarantine. Swabs of returnees are taken before they enter institutional quarantine. If they test negative, they are allowed to go after three-four days and spend the rest of the 14 days quarantined at home.
The State has 3,338 isolation beds, 595 intensive care unit beds and 398 ventilators to treat critically ill patients in government and private hospitals. The State’s mass quarantine facilities can accommodate more than 27,000 people.
