With 3 more deaths, Assam now has more than 100 Covid fatalities

GUWAHATI: The number of Covid-19 deaths in Assam crossed 100 as three more patients succumbed to the infection while 1,457 new cases were detected on Saturday. A total of 1,085 patients were discharged on Saturday, taking the total number of discharged patients to 31,442, which leaves 10,180 active cases in the state.
Assam health and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma was optimistic that with the ‘trace, test, isolate and treat’ strategy, the situation would start going back to normal from August-end.“We are looking at 50,000 tests each day and if people cooperate, we can expect to take the situation back to normal by August 31,” Sarma said.
He added that the Covid-19 situation is improving in Guwahati. “During the peak of the outbreak, we had reported 777 cases on July 4. Presently, we are below 300 cases each day. The improvement has come from the back-to-back lockdowns. But if people discontinue with face masks and social distancing, the situation will slip to worse again and we will be forced to impose another lockdown,” Sarma said.
The cumulative confirmed cases count rose to 41,726 on Saturday. Sarma said that the positivity rate remained low at about 5%. Among the 1,457 new cases reported on Saturday, 275 are from Guwahati city.
Sarma in a tweet said, “Per Day testing in Guwahati of COVID 19 has increased from 2112 on 1st July to 6240 on 31st July. On 4th July total, positive cases were 777, and on 31st July it was 281. On 4th July the positivity rate was 33.5%, and on 31st July it was 4.5%.- healthy improvement.”
A nine-day old girl from Hailakandi district became the youngest person in Assam to test positive for the infection on Friday. The baby girl has been taken to the Silchar Medical College and Hospital for treatment. The test result of the mother, who gave birth to the baby at home, turned out to be negative.
The doubling time of cases has increased to 15.6 days on July 30 from 11.9 days on July 15 while the recovery rate of patients stands over 75%, and fatality rate less than 1% .
Sarma lauded personnel of Assam Police, who after recovering from Covid-19 have come forward for plasma donation. “1500 police personnel were infected and of them 62 were symptomatic, who came forward to donate their blood plasma. Today after examination 43 were found to be fit to donate their plasma,” he said.
He later tweeted, “The Khaki stands for sacrifice & compassion!True to the spirit, 67 recovered police personnel came forwards to donate their #plasma. So very proud to have felicitated.”