14 Covid-19 patients die in Assam in 24 hours; toll now 140

GUWAHATI: Assam’s Covid-19 death count jumped to 140 after 14 patients succumbed in the last 24 hours—eight of them being on Saturday. But, the mortality rate continue to remain around 0.24%.
The positivity rate also remained below 5% as the cumulative count of confirmed cases reached 55,496 in last 24 hours, out of which 17,755 are from Kamrup (metro) district alone.
The recovery rate on the other hand also stayed close to 70% as 16,544 patients remain in active conditions in different hospitals and Covid care centres. So far 38,809 patients have recovered.
Informing the last eight deaths, state health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted, “Sad with the demise of 8 Covid patients.” The eight deceased include a 45-year and a 52-year from Nalbari, a 54-year a 50-year and 48-year from Morigaon , a 46 –year from Kokrajhar, a 55-year from Nagaon and a 60-yer from Dibrugarh.
In the last 24 hours, 58,531 tests were conducted among which 2679 samples tested positive. In this regard Sarma tweeted, “Positivity rate continues to be low at 4.57%. Kamrup (M)- 442, Kamrup (R)- 265, Cachar- 250, Nagaon- 172.”
With the latest numbers, Assam has reported a total of 55,496 cases of Covid-19, of which 17,755 are from the state capital alone.
Assam BJP MLA Mihir Kanti Shome who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday became the eighth legislator to get infected by virus in the state.
The Health and Family Welfare Department in its media bulletin said the doubling rate of the cases has increased to 16.3 days at 52,817 cases on August 6 from 13.9 days as on July 21, when there were 26,772 cases.
A total of 12,38,867 samples have been tested so far across the state in government-run laboratories and a few outsourced labs, the bulletin stated, which indicates that the state’s per million test stands at 36,126.
It also said a total of 131 people have donated their plasma for treatment of other Covid-19 patients in plasma banks set up across five medical college hospitals in the state.
Assam Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) G P Singh tweeted that a total of 2,154 personnel from the force have tested positive till date, out of whom 1,543 have recovered. Of them, 607 have joined the duty after recovery. “Unfortunately, we've lost six colleagues till date,” he added.