With 276 fresh cases, Assam's COVID-19 tally climbs to 6,646

Assam reported 276 fresh coronavirus cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 6,646 in the state, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The fresh cases were detected across the state and reported late in the evening, while 75 patients were discharged from various hospitals of Assam, he said. The recovery rate of coronavirus patients is above 60 per cent in the state, the minister said.

Of the 6,646 cases, 2,601 are active. Assam has witnessed nine deaths due to the disease, 4,033 patients have been discharged and three have migrated out of the state, Sarma said. A total of 3,51,753 samples have been tested for the disease in the state so far.

"Our aggressive testing continues, and thanks to stupendous efforts of the team, today our #COVID19 tests count reached 351,753," Sarma said in a tweet.

The state had detected 314 coronavirus cases on Wednesday with 88 of those reported on Thursday by the minister and this was the second-highest number of cases on a single day with the highest of 331 reported on June 21. The Assam government activated 31 COVID counselling centres (CCCs) on Thursday in Guwahati, where the number of coronavirus cases is increasing alarmingly, the minister said. This is a proactive initiative by the state government to combat the rising curve of the infection in Guwahati, he added.

"We have activated all 31 CCCs in each and every ward of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation. I urge the citizens of Guwahati to use these facilities and come forward for voluntary testing for COVID-19," Sarma said.

Altogether 33 such CCCs, including the ones in the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH), will provide these facilities to the people of the city for voluntary testing and instant testing result with the installation of sophisticated machines recognised by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in a phased manner.

The CCCs have been set up in a school in each ward and these will gradually be transformed into mini-hospitals with the facility of services from doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, among others, so that the entire process from testing to detection and isolation can be done at the same place, an official said.

The CCCs will provide COVID counselling, swab collection, medical collection, result reporting, shifting of positive cases to isolation centres and disseminate information regarding the disease. Sarma had earlier said the number of cases will continue to increase in Guwahati and it will take at least a month to flatten the curve.

There has been a spike in the number of cases in the city since the last week and the minister had said the "situation in Guwahati is alarming and our focus is now on how to control COVID-19 here, so that it does not spread to the community level in other districts".

Kamrup (Metro) district, under which Guwahati falls, has so far reported 552 COVID-19 cases, with a majority of those from the municipal area of the city. A complete lockdown has been imposed for 14 days since Tuesday in 11 wards of the city, from where most of the cases have been reported.