GUWAHATI:
Assam has put hospital authorities on alert for the maximum segregation of Covid-19 positive cases around the time of Rongali Bihu festival.
This spring festival is the biggest festival of Assam where large groups gather to sing and dance to the beats of Bihu.
In view of such gatherings adding to the positive caseload, the government has issued an
SOP limiting Bihu celebrations at night.
The health department has maintained that unless the positive cases are segregated, even small celebrations can become spreaders of the infection.
Last year, the first wave had put a brake on the celebrations and this year, people were hoping for a festival without curbs this time around.
The health department is confident of controlling the current surge as screening of passengers arriving from other states has been stepped up.
Unlike states in the west, north and central India, the situation is under control in the northeast.
Till Friday night, cases were limited to 300 or even less every day in Assam. The state is the gateway to the entire northeast.
Senior health officials told TOI that institutional quarantine centres are unlikely to be revived in the state.
Apart from the state-of-the-art Covid Care Hospital at Kalapahar in Guwahati, two other leading government hospitals in the city, the
Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) and the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH), are by and large free of Covid patients.
GMCH principal Achyut Baishya said in the Kalapahar hospital, controlled by the GMCH, 150 of the 162 beds were occupied on Saturday.
“There are plenty of beds in Guwahati hospitals to treat Covid cases. Till Saturday, we have not sent any fresh Covid case to the main GMCH campus in Bhangagarh. The idea is to continue with services to other patients as well,” Baishya said.
In the Covid hospital on the MMCH premises, 12 out of 60 beds remain occupied by Covid patients. If need arises, another 200 Covid patients can be accommodated on the GMCH main campus, he added.
All over Assam, as many as 4,000 hospital beds and 400 ICU facilities are ready to tackle the new wave, said Assam NHM director Lakshmanan S.
He said home quarantine will be advised to positive patients, unless they need hospitalization.
“Having positive cases is not a problem, but not being able to identify them is. People having symptoms, travel history or who came in contact with positive cases, must come forward for testing voluntarily,” Lakshmanan added. He said that all medical colleges and district hospitals are also on alert.
Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma once again turned down any possibility of a lockdown in Assam but stressed on expediting the vaccination drive for the 45+ category.
“The financially poor are worst affected under a lockdown. The Assam government is yet to consider a lockdown as a measure to stop the fresh spurt,” he told reporters on Saturday.
Sarma, however, said that if the situation turns serious and primary schools get closed due to Covid, the government would take care of the students.
He emphasized on vaccinating teachers, as closure of schools at the beginning of the new academic season may be disappointing. A teacher at a government school in Guwahati died on Friday after she tested positive on April 4.