Assam enters bad phase

With 4 persons testing COVID-19 positive on Wednesday, the state’s total number of infected persons has risen to five in less than 24 hours, thus suddenly pushing Assam into a bad phase. The fact is that all these persons attended the Tablighi Jamaat at the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi a couple of weeks ago. Many people who attended that Islamic congregation from different states of India have already tested positive; a few of them have already died. This has further increased apprehensions in Assam. As Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s said on Wednesday, over 400 people from different districts of Assam had attended the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi. Of them 347 have returned and have been mingling with various people in the past two weeks. Of them again, only 230 persons have been identified and located till Wednesday afternoon, while the remainder 117 are hiding. These statistics are enough to gauge the gravity of the situation Assam where the government had left no stone unturned to prepare for the worse. As the Health Minister has said, the first person who tested positive spent a night at the Athgaon Kabarstan Masjid with another person, mingled with several others, travelled from Guwahati to Badarpur in an Agartala-bound Rajdhani Express with another person, and after he fell sick on reaching home came into direct contact with at least 19 persons. Each of these 19 persons again must have definitely mingled with several persons, thus dangerously increasing the chances of infection in many more people. It is a matter of grave concern and anguish that these 347 persons from Assam had simply refused to heed to the government’s repeated appeals that all persons coming from other states in the past few weeks should voluntarily disclose about their travels to the authorities. This is grossly a criminal act. Religious leaders of the areas from where these 400-plus persons went to Nizamuddin must be also held responsible. Given the fact that the return of these 347 persons to the state and refrained from disclosing about their travel to the authorities, it is now time for the State Government to enforce the lockdown more strictly. The citizens on their part have to be now ten times more careful.