COVID-19 situation in Assam turning grim? Here's what Himanta Biswa Sarma says

Guwahati: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today during one of his inspections at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) proclaimed that as many as 28 patients out of the 30 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in the hospital are in a 'critical' condition, which could lead one to speculate the worst.

"We have 30 ICU patients admitted due to the COVID-19 in the hospital. Out of these 30 cases, 28 are in a bad state. I had issued a warning that at one point the COVID-19 would take a fearsome avatar if we are unable to control it. I saw an example of that in the ICU. The last time I visited the ICU, there were 12 cases only and now there are 30. More are on the way", Biswa Sarma said.

During the onset of the disease -- when the COVID-19 was still something of an unknown entity -- the Assam health department was hailed for its efforts in ramping up hospital facilities as well as building quarantine centres. The efforts of the health minister and his foresight in attempting to deal with an invisible enemy were hailed by all and sundry and the 'Assam model' to battle the dreaded COVID was unanimously declared by pundits as one of the most successful ones in the country.

When the first case of the virus hit on March 31 -- an isolated case, a Tablighi Jamaat attendee -- the tense denizens of Assam attributed the infection to the patient's connection to the virus hotspot of Nizamuddin Markaz. In the ensuing days, several more people, all with links to the Delhi gathering, were isolated from the herd and treated in hospitals across Assam. Although the first death was reported on April 10, less than 2 weeks after the first detection, the man was a 65-year-old retired BSF personnel, thus belonging to the 'vulnerable' category of patients.

It was during this first wave of cases that the first COVID-19 positive case was detected in Guwahati city. The businessman, a resident of the upscale Spanish Gardens, had contracted the virus from seemingly out of nowhere. The source of his infection could never be gauged by the health department, despite its best efforts.

Subsequently, the influx of migrant workers and students from Assam stuck in other parts of the country caused another uptick in the number of cases. The health minister pegged the number of inbound migrants at 12 lakh and expressed that the crisis period would be over once these citizens were back home. However, on 10 June, the Minister dropped a bombshell: as many as 13 COVID-19 patients in Guwahati city did not have travel history. This was the first hint of community transmission in the state, where the cases were believed to have arrived in waves from other parts of India -- then in the midst of a COVID-19 boom.

India's coronavirus count increased to 7,42,417 on Wednesday as it recorded a rise of over 22,000 COVID-19 cases in a single-day, even as the recovery rate further improved to over 61.5 per cent, according to Union Health Ministry data. Similarly, Assam's COVID-19 caseload has also risen at a steady and alarming rate -- over 14,000 cases have been registered till now. Amid these new developments in the COVID-19 scenario, all eyes, for now, will be turned towards the death toll numbers which seem to be rising on a regular basis.

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