Assam reports lowest coronavirus cases since May 23

Assam reported 61 new Covid-19 positive cases on Friday, the lowest since May 23, with the total cases so far rising to 2,15,836 and no deaths were reported, state Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The 61 new cases were detected out of 11,757 tests conducted during the day with a positivity rate of 0.52 per cent, he said. The new cases included 28 from Kamrup Metropolitan district which has recorded the highest number of positive cases in the state.

There has been no death in the state due to the pandemic after December 12 and the total casualty is 1033 and the current death rate 0.47 per cent.

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Meanwhile, a person who had returned here from the UK tested Covid-19 positive and his swab sample has been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, to ascertain whether it is of the new variant mutant or of the prevalent strain, the minister had earlier said in a press conference.

The patient is currently in isolation at the Guwahati Medical College Hospital and the details will be provided only after the report is received, Sarma told reporters here.

"The sample has been sent to National Institute of Virology, Pune, to ascertain whether it is of the new variant or the existing strain. We will give the details only after we get the report or else the family comes under pressure", he said.

Asked whether there will be further lockdown in the state, the Minister said that there was no such possibility as the number of daily positive cases have come down to less than a hundred.

"We can say that Assam is relatively Covidfree. Most of the recent cases detected are from the same family. The strict surveillance at airports and railway stations will continue," Sarma said.

According to the state health department, 102 persons have come to the state from the UK during the last 15 days and 72 of them are from the Kamrup Metropolitan district. Meanwhile, 95 recovered patients have been discharged from various hospitals of the state, taking the total recoveries to 2,11,378 with the recovery rate at 97.93 per cent.

There are 3422 active cases currently in the state, comprising 1.59 per cent of the total cases. Of the total 2,15,836 positive cases, 1033 have died and three have migrated out of the state.