Fake news alert: WhatsApp msgs on lockdown false, says CM of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal

GUWAHATI: WhatsApp msgs being circulated widely on Assam heading for a lockdown and several other initiatives taken by the Government of Assam to deal with coronavirus situation are fake.

Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal tweeted:

https://twitter.com/CMOfficeAssam/status/1241995715770908672

Assam Health Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted:

https://twitter.com/himantabiswa/status/1241939602539032577

Meanwhile, in a development that has brought a sigh of relief to the State Health department, the second test of a four-and-a-half-year-old girl in Jorhat district, who had initially tested positive for coronavirus on Saturday evening, turned out to be negative on Sunday morning.

"The 4-year-old child who was suspected of COVID-19 and tested in Jorhat Medical College and RMRC, Dibrugarh has been found negative. There is no COVID-19 positive case in Assam so far," Health & Family Welfare Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Sunday, attaching a copy of the investigation report.

Jorhat Deputy Commissioner Roshni Aparanji Korati had on Saturday night told reporters that the results of the initial test done at the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) laboratory were positive. "We have sent the sample to ICMR-RMRC laboratory at Lahowal in Dibrugarh district for a re-check. The result is expected tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon," the DC said.

The girl's family was from the Pulibor area in Jorhat district and they had recently travelled in a train from Bihar to Mariani in Jorhat. The girl, her sister and her mother reached Jorhat on March 19. Health workers visited the family on March 20 and brought them to JMCH as the girl exhibited symptoms akin to coronavirus.

The Jorhat district administration and the Health department had started tracing all those who came in contact of the girl. Her family, however, has no history of foreign travel."Everybody is being placed under home isolation, including the health workers visiting them. The family has been shifted to the JMCH isolation ward," Korati added.

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