Assam issues new COVID guidelines as the state records fewer cases, check revised rules

Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) issued new sets of SOPs while relaxing the COVID-19 curfew timings in the state. As per the new SOPs, the night curfew timings have been changed to 11 pm-5 am, while shops and dine-in restaurants will be allowed to remain open till 10 pm. As per the new guidelines, the number of people attending weddings has been set at a maximum of 50 single-dose vaccinated people to 200 fully vaccinated people.

The SOPs further added that 50 people will be allowed to attend the last rites of a dead person. In the 'iconic' religious places, 60 fully vaccinated people will be allowed to visit every hour, while 40 fully vaccinated people will be allowed to enter other religious centres. Cinema halls and auditoriums will have 50% capacity.

Assam's COVID cases

As per the National Health Mission, the state of Assam registered more than 300 single-day fresh COVID infections on Monday. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the cumulative tally of the total number of COVID-19 cases is 6,08,915. After lodging more than 300 cases for five days in a row, Assam reported only 139 cases on Sunday.

The daily caseload was below the 300-mark from October 8 before breaching it on October 19 after a gap of 11 days. The fresh cases were detected out of 50,253 samples tested on Monday. According to the state’s health bulletin, the positivity rate was reduced to 0.65% from 0.71% on Sunday. Another five people succumbed to the disease due to the Coronavirus, which took 5,978 total deaths in the state of Assam since the beginning of the pandemic. However, at least 1,347 COVID-19 patients have succumbed due to other reasons.

State’s vaccination tally

As the fresh cases were detected on Monday, 104 cases were from the Kamrup Metro district, 34 from Barpeta, 21 from Sivasagar, and 17 from Lakhimpur. Out of the deaths reported, two COVID-19 deaths were reported from Kamrup Metro and one each from Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur and Nalbari. At least 296 Coronavirus patients recovered from the infection in the last 24 hours as it took the total number of recovered patients so far to 5,99,055. As it stands, the recovery rate of Assam is 98.38%.

According to the bulletin, the active cases in the state stand at 2,535. Meanwhile, the number of total beneficiaries vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccines in the state so far is 2,72,94,413. Out of which, 1,99,31,906 received the first dose and 73,62,507 both the doses. In the past 24 hours, Assam administered 1,44,272 vaccinations, out of which 30,763 was the first dose while 1,13,509 was the second dose.

(with ANI and PTI inputs)