Himanta Biswa Sarma hints at lockdown in other districts as well

Provisions for 2,500 more COVID patients to be made in Guwahati

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The Assam Government is ready to impose tough lockdown in other parts of the State. The Health department has mobilized resources to create 2,500 additional seats (hospital beds) in Kamrup (Metropolitan) district to take the load of increasing number of COVID-19 positive cases in the city.

Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday said that this decision has been taken due to the fast rise in COVID-positive cases in the city the existing 900 beds would not be adequate enough to accommodate the patients. He further said that there is an urgent need to create additional beds as there are reasons to believe that there has been community transmission of the virus in the city.

He also said that more than 200 positive cases without any travel history have been detected in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of such cases to 880. He added that around 800 and 250 additional beds will be created at Khanapara and Mirza respectively.

The Minister added that the government has been compelled to impose a tough lockdown in Guwahati from Monday due to the increasing number of COVID -positive cases without any travel history. He said that it is unfortunate that despite the rise in the corona-positive cases, majority of the people in Guwahati are refusing to change their behavior and follow the COVID-safety norms.

Minister Sarma further said that the government is planning to conduct random COVID tests in other vulnerable districts. "If the test results are found alarming, we will impose Guwahati-like lockdown there too," Sarma said. There are 329 COVID-positive active cases in Dhubri, 302 in Nagaon and 267 in Hojai.

On Saturday evening, Sarma tweeted that the next few weeks will be tough for Guwahati. "In order to increase the COVID-treatment capacity, we need to upgrade our available infrastructures," he wrote in his twitter account.  

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