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Fresh COVID-19 cases reported in Assam, Manipur

Of the 95 cases in Assam, 50 are active and 41 persons have recovered while two have died and two have migrated.

Fresh COVID-19 cases reported in Assam, Manipur

A security personnel (L) stands guard as residents interact with each other in an alley behind the barricade of a containment zone set up as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, at Kumarpara area in Guwahati on May 14, 2020. (Photo by Biju BORO / AFP)

Four fresh novel coronavirus cases have been reported in Assam, taking the state’s tally to 95, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Sunday. Of the new cases, two are from Guwahati city and one each from Sonitpur and Sivasagar districts. The patients were admitted to hospitals early on Sunday morning, he said.

Two of the four patients were in quarantine centres in Guwahati and Jorhat, he said. Two patients have been admitted to the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) in Guwahati and one each in Tezpur Medical College and Hospital and Jorhat Medical College and Hospital, Sarma said.

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Of the 95 cases, 50 are active and 41 persons have recovered while two have died and two have migrated. Thirty-one people tested positive for COVID-19 in Guwahati last week. The highest of 15 cases were reported in a single day on Wednesday. Samples of 340 direct and indirect contacts of the patients are being tested, officials said.

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A total of 31,276 samples have been tested in Assam so far, of which results of 95 have returned positive while those of 28,332 returned negative and the remaining reports are awaited, they added.

Meanwhile, four persons, including three women, tested positive for COVID-19 in Manipur, taking the total number of active cases in the state to five, officials said on Saturday. Of the fresh patients, two have returned from Mumbai, one from Chennai and one from Kolkata, they said.

Two Mumbai returnees, a 75-year-old woman and a 48- year-old man, had reached Imphal on May 14 in a hired vehicle and were placed under quarantine at the RD Wing in Lamphel, which had been set up to quarantine patients returning from other states following treatment, they said.

One of the two underwent treatment at the Tata Memorial Hospital there.

A 22-year-old woman, who had recently returned from Chennai in a special train, also tested positive for the dreaded virus and was staying at a quarantine centre in Churachandpur district, another official said.

“The woman was admitted to the isolation ward of the district hospital after she developed fever,” he said.

She was among the 1,140 stranded Manipuris who had reached Jiribam railway station in the state on May 13. A nursing professional, who was under quarantine, tested positive and was shifted to an isolation ward of Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences here. The woman, who works in a Kolkata hospital, had returned to Manipur in a bus on May 7, the official said.

The influx of people will continue, and three special trains coming from Baroda, Bengaluru and Hyderabad will reach the state soon, the official said.

The COVID-19 Consultative Committee under the chairmanship of Chief Minister N Biren Singh suggested the testing of all the people who came from outside and asked the authorities to keep them in quarantine centres till the test results are received.

It recommended the state government to extend the ongoing lockdown till May 31, the statement said. “Exemptions may be given to agriculture activities, MGNREGA, MSME sector with social distancing norms in rural areas,” it said.

Manipur was declared a zero positive COVID-19 state by the chief minister on April 19, after two coronavirus patients recovered. Following the detection of positive cases at two quarantine centres, the Imphal West district administration has taken up containment measures.

Deputy Commissioner Imphal West N Praveen said the containment measures have been taken up “in view of the impending threat of COVID-19 pandemic in the areas”.

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