Assam: Man Escapes from Quarantine Centre in Baksa District

Baksa, May 1, 2020:

Yesterday, a 30-year-old man quarantined in a facility in Baksa district of Assam made good his escape, leading to fear and apprehensions in the region.

At a time when the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping across the globe, alarm bells were set ringing when a psychiatric patient escaped from a guarded quarantine facility in Mushalpur town in the district. The man in question, a certain uSatyajit Saha first came to the notice on April 26 last, when he was spotted roaming around aimlessly by the locals.

Subsequently, when the locals informed the local administration, the man was taken by the police to the Dr Ravi Boro Civil Hospital in Mushalpur.

Later, the health personnel decided it best to quarantine the man as he was roaming around in violation of the lockdown rules. He was later being "treated" at the quarantine facility and had been living there for a few days.

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However, yesterday, around 11 am, he escaped through the toilet of the facility. His absence was discovered by the nurse when she went to his room to check up on the quarantined man.

"He was a psychiatric patient; police brought him here because he was found roaming on the street. We had begun his treatment under a psychiatry doctor called Anisu Rahman, and we had received his treatment receipt from Nalbari", said a doctor, Subhash Sharma.

As of now, no trace of this man has been found, and an FIR has been lodged at the local police station to further probe this issue.

It may be mentioned here that Assam has 12 active cases and 29 patients have already been discharged and 1 patient, a 65-year-old man from Hailakandi district, has died.

After the detection of 4 cases in Bongaigaon, Sarma has announced that the Bongaigaon district will be declared a red-zone after 4 from the district tested ‘positive for the COVID-19, taking the tally of cases to 5.

Surprisingly, none of the patients have any contact history with COVID patients, nor are they attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat gathering. The patients have been recognized as Anupam Thakuria of Chaparakata, Dipak Mallik of Abhayapuri Amguri second part, Babita Basfor of Swahid Bedi, and Neena Mallik of Railway Colony.

Sarma said that the containment zone with a radius of 3 kms will be declared in the localities where the cases were found. Further, he announced that the entire district will be declared as a ‘red zone’ due to the rising number of cases.

Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a ‘special investigation’ must be carried out into these cases, as they do not have any contact-history with patients. “We cannot call it community transmission, but this is the first time that such cases have been detected which cannot be pinpointed”, Sarma said.

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