Assam: Himanta Biswa Sarma urges people not to return after big spike

GUWAHATI: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has declared the “state is not safe now” after waves of infected people returning home triggered a massive spike of 70 Covid-19 positive cases on Saturday, increasing the number of cases to 329.
With the capacity in Covid hospitals being pushed to the limit, Sarma reiterated his appeal to the state’s stranded people not to return to home for now as all fresh cases are those who have arrived from other states. “Those who are planning to return to the state considering it as a safe place, I appeal to them to abort their travel plans,” he said.
Amid the gloom, three Covid-19 positive persons have recovered and have been discharged from hospital, bringing down the number of active cases to 265. Altogether 57 people have recovered so far and four others have died.
As majority of the infected people have come in buses and hired vehicles, mostly from western and southern parts of the country, Sarma haspecifically urged people not to travel by road. “People come in buses and trucks without maintaining social distance. Because of them this unexpected situation has arisen,” he said.
He further added, “The state government will write to originating states not to allow people to travel without maintaining social distance. They also break all social distancing norms on way and we intend to write to the states through one has to travel to Assam to stop them,” Sarma said.
Every day, thousands of people are arriving in the state which has forced Sarma to revise the protocols and distribute the quarantine period between institutional facility and home in order to keep pace with the growing number of positive cases, which are proportionately rising with increasing number of arrivals.
The first 100 cases in the state occurred over 48 days but it took just four days to breach the 200 mark. The 300-mark was crossed on a single day on Saturday and is still counting.
All beds at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhruy Hospital here, which has been the main Covid-19 hospital, were filled up by Saturday morning.