GUWAHATI: With the COVID-19 infection rate coming down in Assam, the state health minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has urged the public to be extra cautious so as to avoid a second round of infection of the deadly virus.
Speaking to reporters in Sivasagar, the health minister said that several states in India took the COVID-19 infection casually and opened up everything resulting in a second wave.
“By November, the COVID-19 situation in Assam will improve a lot if we can manage things properly. We are now witnessing a gradually declining curve of the virus in Assam. It is now going down. But during Durga Puja festivities if we let go of ourselves and take the guard off, it would be like calling it (virus) back, and that would be a difficult situation. Many states, including Delhi, got everything running as soon as the infection rate came a bit down, that resulted in a second wave. So, if we are alert and careful, and take lessons from other states we can probably not witness the second wave and can lead a normal life like before.
On Thursday, 1263 patients were discharged in Assam. The total number of discharged patients (169,332) is 6 times that of active patients (28804), stated Dr. Sarma in a tweet. There have been 843 COVID-19 related deaths in Assam till Thursday and the total COVID-19 cases stood at 198,982.
The state of Maharashtra remains the worst affected with 1,92,936 active cases, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare data. So far, India has tested 9.2-crore samples for COVID-19 and Assam has crossed 40 lakh tests. Till Friday 1,12,161 deaths were reported in India with 8,04,528 active cases. A total of 64,53,780 cases have been cured, discharged or migrated and the total cases stand at 73,70,469 in India as per MoHFW data.
