Assam reduces quarantine period to 4 days, recovery rate slow

Assam has decided to reduce the institutional quarantine period to four days from seven days despite the ‘recovery rate is slow’.

With an increase in COVID-19 testing capacity, we have decided institutional quarantine reduced to 4 days from 7 days so that public money expenditure can be decreased. However, the recovery rate is slow in Assam,” Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said while addressing a press conference here in Guwahati on May 31^st, 2020.

Claiming that the state has been able to contain the spread of the COVID-19, Sarma said a total of 2,29,893 returnees have been quarantined so far across the state. “A total of 1,04,083 samples have been so far tested in different laboratories across the state so far,”

He also said that the state has increased the capacity to test 10,000 samples per day.

Also read: Assam Reports 56 New COVID-19 Cases, Count Climbs To 1272

Doubling rate increases

The doubling rate of the COVID-19 cases in the state is alarming. Informing this, the minister said, “1 to 157 cases were detected in 51 days while 157 - 346 cases in four days, 346 - 682 in three days and 682 – 1216 in just four days.”

However, the mortality rate is just 0.32 percent which is far better than many states in the country, Sarma added.

Meanwhile, talking about the detection of COVID-19 in inbound people, Sarma said, “Almost all the positive patients have been reported in quarantine centres. They have returned from different parts of the country.”

Saying that Assam has registered only 24 cases with no travel history, Sarma said, “36 cases were related to religious congregation at Delhi’s Nizamuddin and 32 were indirectly related with the event and  .

The minister also informed that most of the cases have been detected among people returned from Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Delhi. “312 Maharashtra returnees tested positive for COVID-19 while 333 from Tamil Nadu and 134 from Delhi,” he added.

Among the districts, Hojai has registered highest confirmed COVID-19 cases. It has 177 cases followed by 160=] in Golaghat, 134 in Kamrup (Metro), 89 in Morigaon, 59 in Nagaon, Two in Karbi Anglong and one in Majuli.

Also read: Nagaland: Doctor alleges scam in COVID-19 management

Way forward

The minister informed that Assam will adopt a new policy in handling COVID-19 from June. “A total of 50 model hospitals will be activated from June so that non-symptomatic patients can be treated there. The highly symptomatic patients will be treated at the medical colleges while vulnerable but non-symptomatic patients will be treated at the district hospitals. Overall, there will be three layers in total,” he said.

The minister also said that the test reports of the patients must be available within 72 hours from June.

Moreover, Sarma informed that the state government is preparing a SOP on how to tackle COVID-19 amid the flood that hits the state every year leaving lakhs of people affected.

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