Corona scene to be clear after August 15: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: Around 15,73,800 corona tests have been conducted in Assam. The department had a target of conducting one lakh COVID-19 tests on August 12 alone. The rate of corona positive in the State is still below 5 per cent. That amply says that we've been able to fight the pandemic so far. The death rate is 0.24 per cent, much below many States. After August 15, we'll get a clear scene of the situation. We've tested 41,000 people per million, that can be increased up to 45,000.

This is what State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on the fight against COVID-19 in the State. He further said that it has come to notice that a few private laboratories have been conducting anti-body tests. "This is not a fair practice. Anti-body tests can make one know one's infection status only if one is cured of coronavirus infection four or five months back (without knowledge). Such tests can't detect current corona infection," Sarma said, and appealed to them not to create any misunderstanding among the panic-stricken people. "Only antigen test, rapid test or RT-PCR test can detect current corona infection," he said.

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