COVID-19 cases cross 2,000-mark in Assam

The number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 2,000-mark in Assam with the addition of 243 fresh ones on Thursday, after the state recorded the highest single-day spurt of 269 cases the previous day, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The number of positive cases in the state is now 2,073. Since Wednesday, the state has recorded 512 cases.

The minister said 85 new cases were recorded on Thursday night, 111 in the evening and 47 in the morning from different districts of the state.

Of the 85 new cases, 21 each were reported from Barpeta and Tinsukia, 14 from Dima Hasao, eight each from Dhemaji and Udalguri, five from Kamrup, four from Lakhimpur, three from Kamrup (Rural) and one was reported from Baksa, he said.

Of the 111 cases registered in the evening, 46 are from Hojai, 28 from Udalguri, 11 from Kamrup, 10 from Nagaon, five from Morigaon, three each from Nalbari and Goalpara, two each from Golaghat and Jorhat and one case was from Dhubri.

Of the 47 cases recorded in the morning, 33 were from Hojai, six from Dhemaji, four from Bongaigaon, three from Barpeta and one was from Baksa, the minister said.

Hojai has so far recorded the highest of 79 positive cases among the districts on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 29 more patients have been cured and released from various hospitals, taking the number of those recovered to 442.

The discharged patients include 14 from the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital, five from Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Hospital, four from Silchar Medical College Hospital, three from Golaghat Civil Hospital, two from Dhemaji Civil Hospital and one from the Guwahati Medical College and Hospital.

Of the 2,073 cases, 1,624 are active, 442 have recovered and discharged from hospitals, four have died and three migrated out of the state, he said.

The third flight under the Vande Bharat Mission carrying 69 passengers arrived from Ukraine's Kiev at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport on Thursday, an Airports Authority of India (AAI) spokesperson said.

A repatriation flight from Russia carrying 37 passengers arrived on Wednesday and another from Kuwait with 155 passengers arrived on May 29.

Altogether 66 air passengers have tested positive for COVID-19 so far, including 30 from Kuwait, since flight operations resumed in the country on May 25.

Meanwhile, 62 passengers travelling in a Mumbai-Dibrugarh Shramik Special train tried to escape institutional quarantine by pulling the chain around 300 metres from the Hojai railway station on Wednesday.

A Railway Protection Force (RPF) team nabbed 57 of them from the spot and five others were picked up from their homes, police said.

The number of cases in the state has recorded a steep increase since inter-state movement began on May 4.

Sample testing facilities in the state have increased and the Assam government's aim in June is reduced institutional quarantine, increased home quarantine and further increase in testing, officials said.

Assam has so far tested 1,33,029 samples, with 2,073 testing positive, 1,22,618 negative and the remaining are awaited, the daily bulletin of the state Health and Family Welfare Department said.