Assam loses 99 lives to Covid-19 and flood in 14 weeks

GUWAHATI: Assam is battling twin attacks from a global pandemic and an annual natural disaster. 13 lives have been lost in 24 hours—four to Covid-19 and nine in flood. Altogether 99 people have died due to both causes in the state in 14 weeks.
Till Tuesday, the total fatalities in the pandemic climbed to 40 and the flood death toll to 59. In the last 24 hours 1001 fresh Covid-19 positive cases have been reported in the state and on the other hand over 32 lakh population have been hit by flood on Tuesday after 28 of the 33 districts were inundated by all rivers of the state including the Brahmaputra river.

The first Covid-19 case in the state was reported on March 31 and the current first wave of flood hit the state on May 22. After few weeks of showing improvement, the flood situation turned grim again in the last couple of weeks.
Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that floodwater has inundated 3,371 villages and 128,495 hectares of crop area in 28 districts. A total of 517 relief camps and distribution centres in 24 districts, where over 44,108 people have taken shelter.
The worst flood-affected districts are Dhemaji, Udalguri, Darrang, Biswanath, Sonitpur, Baksa, Lakhimpur, Chirang, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar, Dhubri, South Salmara, Goalpara, Kamrup, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Majuli, Dibrugarh, West Karbi Anglong, Karbi Anglong and Tinsukia.
The NDRF and SDRF together with local people and local administration have rescued over 7000 marooned people in various districts.