In big anti-Covid step, Assam to provide Pulse Oximeter & medicines to home-isolatees

The Assam government will provide COVID-19 patients in Guwahati who opted for home isolation with a pulse oximeter and first-line supportive medicine completely free, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma declared on Sunday. The state government has also activated the Tele Medicine service for COVID-19 patients through 104, which will be expanded to other places soon, he added.

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"From tomorrow, we will provide patients preferring to stay in home isolation a pulse oximeter and first-line supportive medicine completely free in Guwahati. We have also activated Tele Medicine service for them through 104, will expand it to other places soon," Sarma said.

The total cost of the items the Assam Health Minister is discussing amounts to over Rs 2000, as per prevailaing market prices.

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COVID-19 scenario in Assam

The health minister further informed that 1,123 COVID-19 cases were detected for coronavirus out of 24,492 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. With this, the total count of positive cases has surged to 58,837 including 40,591 discharged cases, 18,098 active cases and 145 deaths.

Between July 16 and August 8 the positive case rate has come down from 18 percent to 4.5 percent in Guwahati. The number of positive cases is also coming down in the city, Sarma said. The spike in cases in the last week was witnessed as the state opened up shopping malls and gyms in line with 'Unlock-3' guidelines issued by the central government.

Meanwhile, India's COVID-19 count reached 21,09,631 of which 6,28,747 cases are active while 14,80,884 people have recovered. 43,379 people have died. The lockdown has been extended to August 31 under 'Unlock 3'.

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(With ANI Inputs)