Guwahati: Assam finance and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today predicted that the COVID-19 cases in the state, and especially in Guwahati, is poised to rise at a dramatic rate in the month of August, when the virus will be at its "peak".
Terming the COVID-19 trend in Assam as an "elastic situation" in a televised interview, Sarma predicted that the number of cases in Guwahati shall rise by 750-1,000 from August 1 onwards. "Since they (the patients) will have to be in COVID Care Centre for 10 days, we will have to be ready with 7,500 to 10,000 slots to accommodate these people in hospitals, COVID Care Centres, Nursing Homes, Home Quarantine, etc", Sarma said.
Sarma said that another projection will be made on August 15. "Again, on September 1, we will have to make another projection and it will be one of the last", Sarma said. He further opined that the virus curve will start to flatten after September 15.
The health minister also prophesied that 8% of the patients will be "serious" and will require treatment. "We will need to prepare 800 critical beds for these patients. Half of these patients will land up in the ICU; thus, we will have to prepare 400 ICUs within 10 days. The patients cannot be released within 10 days; they will stay in the hospital", he said.
Sarma also stated that because the number of COVID-19 cases is expected to rise by 1,000 in Guwahati and 2,000 across Assam on a daily basis next month, the testing infrastructure has to be ramped up significantly. "Testings have to reach 30,000. As the numbers continue to mount, testings will have to be conducted on a massive scale across the districts. COVID Care Centres have to be set up, critical beds have to be set up, testing laboratories have to be set up", Sarma said.
Sarma's comments have come a day after the state witnessed its biggest single-day spike in COVID-19 cases. With 1680 new COVID-19 patients, Assam witnessed its biggest single-day spike on Tuesday, July 21. Among the new cases, 570 cases were from Guwahati alone. Jorhat and Cachar reported 167 and 159 Coronavirus cases respectively.
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