Flood hits over 10,000 people in Assam amid spike in coronavirus cases

The first wave of flood has hit Assam amid the spike in COVID-19 positive cases, affecting 10, 801 people in four districts so far.

The Assam State Disater Management Authority (ASDMA) in Guwahati said 46 villages have been affected by the first wave of floods in Lakhimpur, Sivasagar, Darrang and Goalpara districts. Goalpara was worst affected with 21 villages already inundated due to the rains in the past four days.

It said the flood so far damaged crops of 501 hectares, while 13, 448 animals have also been affected by the deluge in the four districts. There are reports of bridges, culverts and roads being damaged by floods too.

One relief camp has been opened in Lakhimpur district in North Assam as part of preparation to provide relief to the affected people.

Flood is almost an annual problem in Assam but the deluge amid the coronavirus pandemic has posed an added challenge to the administration, already struggling to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters in Guwahati that eight new COVID-19 postive cases were detected on Sunday, taking the total number of cases to 358. Most of these cases are those who had returned from rest of the country and are in quarantine centres.

Assam had reported 100 cases till May 17 and the number increased to 358 on Sunday, mainly due to return of large number of stranded people.

Sarma said nearly 60,000 people returned to Assam so far by cars, buses and trains. "Tomorrow is going to be a tougher day as we expect more than 2,000 people coming by flights. It will be a tough situation to arrange quarantine centres for them as we have only 1,000 hotel rooms in Guwahati. But we will try our best," he said.

Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said he had already asked the deputy commissioners to set up separate cells to carry out relief and rescue operations expeditiously during flood.