Assam reports 226 new COVID cases; total jumps to 6282

Assam reported 226 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking the total count to 6,282 in the state, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Of the 6,282 cases, there are 2,508 active cases, nine persons have died and three have migrated out of the state, he said.

A day after the number of positive cases crossed 6,000-mark, 226 new cases have been detected on Wednesday, the minister said.

The recovery rate in the state has also improved with 3,762 patients cured and discharged from various hospitals of the state, Sarma said.

Among the positive patients is an undertrial prisoner from Dhubri Jail who was booked in connection with a road accident case in which a woman succumbed to her injuries recently, an official said.

The prisoner too was injured. He was admitted to the Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital (FAAMCH) where his swab samples were taken. His reports came positive on Wednesday, the official said.

The Dhubri district administration has converted the Dhubri Girls College into a jail where new inmates are being kept for mandatory quarantine for 14 days. It is only after their swab samples are tested and the reports are received that they are being sent to the main district jail, the official said.

The district jail has nearly 300 prisoners and their samples have been taken for testing.

The additional district and sessions judge, Bilasipara, accepted the bail prayer for the accused person in the accident case on Tuesday but he could not be released as he was being treated at the FAAMCH.

This is the second case of an undertrial testing positive in the state, with the first being an undetrial of Guwahati Central Jail on June 4.

Meanwhile, the situation in Guwahati remains alarming with 102 of the 203 cases testing positive on Tuesday from the city where total lockdown has been imposed for 14 days in eleven wards.

The state has so far tested a total of 3,23,258 samples for COVID-19 across 12 laboratories of the state.