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STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: To take the fight against COVID-19 to the next level, the State Health Department has started a 'plasma bank' and a 'COVID Antigen-19 Test (COVID AG Test)' machine in the GMCH (Gauhati Medical College & Hospital) from Friday.
Dr Lithikesh of the GMCH, who had recovered from COVID-19, was the first to donate blood for plasma. The State Health department has urged all those who have recovered from COVID-19 to donate blood voluntarily so that their plasma can save the lives of serious COVID-19 patients in future.
The COVID AG Test machine can give results of samples within 15-60 minutes after testing nasal swab of a person with accuracy in positive cases. Even people giving nasal swab for test with this machine can themselves see if their results were positive. The screen of the machine shows two lines – one is C and the other is T. If the screen of the machine shows both C and T lines after test, the person concerned is taken as COVID positive, and if the screen shows only the line C the person is COVID-19 negative.
On the other hand, the number of COVID-19 positive people in Guwahati has reached 2,343 till last night. The number of COVID-19 positive cases without any travel history is also rising fast in other districts in the State. Such a development has made the Health and Family Welfare department to ask the district administrations to declare lockdown areas wise if more COVID-19 cases are detected.
Taking that in mind, the Hailakandi district administration has closed barbers' shops and weekly markets in the district.
The rise in COVID-19 cases has led people of various districts in the State to demand lockdown in their areas so as to prevent community transmission from becoming a reality.
Meanwhile, with the rise in the number of corona cases in the State, the percentage of positive COVID-19 cases and total samples tested has risen to 2.2 per cent now.