Two more die of Covid in Assam, positive case count now 8,955

GUWAHATI: Assam's Covid-19 death toll went up to 14 on Thursday after two more persons succumbed to the virus, even as the ministry of health and family welfare ranked the state among the top 15 in terms of absolute number of recovered cases. The total number of positive cases reported so far in the state is 8,955, of which 2,832 are active.
Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said 275 more patients have recovered and have been discharged from various hospitals on Thursday. While Assam's position is 14th with a total recovery of 6,105 patients, Maharashtra, which tops the list, has so far discharged 93,154 patents.
The health ministry's other list of top-15 states in terms of recovery rate till Wednesday has Meghalaya (80%) at number 2 behind Chandigarh (82.3%). Also in the list are two other states from northeast - Tripura (78.3%) at number 6 and Mizoram (76.9%) at number 8. Assam's recovery rate is 68% and is not among the top-15 states.
Sarma also tweeted, "With heavy heart, I share this with you all ~ We've lost two precious lives to the pandemic." Both the male patients, aged 78 and 56 years, succumbed with co-morbidities.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 situation in the locked down Guwahati remained critical as the total positive cases in the city reached 1,590.
Himanta holds meet with owners of pvt hops
In the backdrop of rising positive cases in the city, Sarma on Thursday held a meeting with owners of private hospitals in the city for setting up specialised facility and dedicated teams for Covid-19 treatment in their hospitals. So far, the state government has not engaged any private hospital or nursing homes in Covid treatment. Some patients in Guwahati, who may not want to stay in the Covid care centres, can avail of the private hospital's services, but on payment.
Meanwhile, 66 police personnel have so far tested positive and of them 14 have recovered, additional director general of police (law and order) G P Singh said. Currently, 1,093 police personnel are under quarantine.
The state health department, following the Centre's directive, aims to conduct 10,000 Covid-19 tests daily in Guwahati city with the new model - Covid-19 AG Test, which is a nasal swab test, whose results will be available within an hour.
About two lakh testing kits have already arrived and the testing is likely to begin from Friday in the 31 Covid screening centres in the city.