Assam reports 302 fresh coronavirus cases; total count 7,794

Assam inched towards the 7,800-mark in coronavirus cases with 302 more people, including 172 from the capital city, testing positive for the infection on Monday, Health and Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. With these, the total number of positive cases in Assam reached 7,794 from 7,492 on Sunday. The state has 2,447 active cases, Sarma said in a tweet.

"Alert ~ 302 new #COVID19+ cases detected in Assam today. Out of these, 172 cases were reported from Guwahati City in last 24 hours," he added.

In a separate tweet, Sarma informed that 245 patients recovered from the disease and were discharged from various hospitals across the state during the day. So far, 11 patients have died due to the deadly disease, while 5,333 have been cured and discharged from hospitals, he added. Besides, three more patients have migrated to other states, the minister informed.

Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) G P Singh tweeted that seven Guwahati police personnel who had contracted the infection have recovered and discharged from the hospital.

The state has so far tested a total of 3,99,393 samples for COVID-19 at 12 government-run laboratories and a few outsourced centres, the daily bulletin of the Assam Health and Family Welfare Department said.

It further said the doubling rate of positive cases has increased to 15.7 days on June 28 from 8.9 days on June 12, when there was 3,693 cases.

The report mentioned that 24,784 people are lodged in institutional quarantine facilities as on date while the total number of people in home quarantine stands at 1,33,795. After the interstate movement through road, rail and air communication was allowed during the lockdown period, Assam saw manifold spike in COVID-19 cases. To screen all people coming from outside the state, the government has imposed a mandatory institutional quarantine policy.