Assam reported 1,202 new coronavirus positive cases on Saturday, its biggest ever single day spike taking the total number of positive cases to 11,001.
Of these, 777 cases were detected only in the capital city Guwahati.
"It is time for all of us to be extra vigilant," health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Saturday night.
Sudden spike in positive cases in Guwahati caused panic amid the complete lockdown in force since June 28. The administration imposed a complete lockdown till July 12 but it decided to allow some relaxations from Monday for supply of food items. The government, however, urged people to strictly maintain the safety measures such as social distancing, failing which strict action would be taken against the violators.
The Gauhati High Court issued an order for cancellation of activities in all courts (including lower courts), except the urgent matters such as bails, productions, habeous corpus petitions in view of detection of COVID-19 positive cases among lawyers and judges. Raj Bhavan, Assam was declared as a containment zone on Saturday after two staffs tested positive.
With a total of 4,659 cases still active and the number going up fast, the health department is struggling to arrange space for isolating the positive persons. The department has opened a COVID care centre at IIT Guwahati campus and another at the Maniram Dewan International Trade Centre in Guwahati and is looking for more such spaces.
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