A CORRESPONDENT
LAKHIMPUR: One employee of the Lakhimpur Deputy Commissioner's office tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. The person has been identified as Bhupen Pegu (51), a Grade IV employee of the Civil Defence Department. He is the resident of Dhemajitown and his residence is located near the Dhemaji Town Committee office.
Though he stays in a rented house in Lakhimpur, he very often visits his home. Before he tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday, he had visited his own home several times. It is suspected that he got infected with coronavirus while visiting Dhemaji. In the meantime, he was admitted at Dhemaji Civil Hospital without shifting him to Lakhimpur.
After Bhupen Pegu was reported positive for coronavirus, Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) was conducted among around 200 employees of the DC office, including the DC, ADCs and other officers. As per result of the RAT, Nabajyoti Goswami, the Deputy Controller of Civil Defence Department, was found to be positive while others tested negative.
The district administration has declared the Civil Defence Department of the DC office, including the Development Branch located in the second floor, as containment zone.
On the other hand, 16 more COVID-19 patients, in addition to these two, were detected in the district on Saturday. Of them, seven patients are the family members of Anu Bhuyan, resident of Gohain Gaon near North Lakhimpur town, who tested positive on July 10. These patients have been identified as DulumoniBhuyan (28), PhanindraBhuyan (75), Kanchan Bhuyan (65), PrashantaBhuyan (47) Rina Bhuyan (40), RupakBhuyan (35) and HimakshiBhuyan (28). One more woman of the same place, named PuspaGogoi, what had come in contact with the family, also tested positive.
On the other hand, an ASTC employee named Hemanta Borah (30), who was involved in transporting the returnees of other States, along with his mother Kiran Das Borah (52), his wife DebojaniBonia (21) and the helper boy of the family named Sunil Bhengra (13) also tested positive on Saturday. They are the residents of Maj-Kasuwa village under Dhakuakhana subdivision.
In addition to them, Lekhan Borah (42) of Bongalsuk village under Naoboicha area having no travel history, three returnees from Hyderabad named SunyDoley (30) of Seuj Nagar of Maidamiya near North Lakhimpur town, PurnaKanta Borah (31) of Balipothar, Dorpang and Suresh Gogoi (32) of Bochapukhuri under Simaluguri area were detected positive for coronavirus on Saturday. With these patients, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the district has spiked to 340. Out of them, 171 patients have been already discharged while 169 are active cases at present.