GUWAHATI:
According to chief minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the COVID19 situation in Assam has not improved enough to allow for inter-district movement of people.
CM Sarma believes that allowing inter-district mobility of people would lead to increased transmission of the fatal contagious virus, and that we will return to the catastrophic scenario with an alarming surge in COVID-19 cases as in the past.
"We have kept the inter-district travel suspended. We are not in a situation to open inter-district travel. Movement of people among the districts will lead to further transmission of COVID19 from one district to the other. This will take us back to the same situation we were in earlier. Only when the COVID19 infection rate comes down in the districts we will think about opening travel," said Dr. Sarma.
"Of the 2300 prevailing cases in Assam, 1300 are from these seven-eight districts. Other districts did not have so many cases. It is because of these 7-8 districts we are facing trouble," said the Assam CM highlighting the COVID crisis faced by the seven worst hit districts in the state.
The revised SOP will be disclosed on Wednesday. According to CM Sarma, curfew hours would be eased from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in districts where the COVID19 situation is improving.
"Our concern is about seven of these districts. In the rest of the districts the shops will remain open till 3 PM and curfew will start at 4 PM. We will implement these timings in all districts except those having more than 100 COVID19 cases, daily," said Himanta Biswa Sarma informing about the relaxation of curfew timings for districts with improved COVID-19 situation.
The curfew durations in Kamrup (Metro) will stay the same, from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., until the COVID19 daily cases exceed 250. According to the Assam CM, not all cases can be counted from Kamrup (Metro), because individuals come from surrounding districts for treatment and are counted.
As per the existing SOP that came into force on 6th of July, the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) issued certain directives related to Containment Zones, gatherings, workplaces, educational institutions, public transport, restriction on movement of individuals including night curfew, restriction on inter-district transport services and penal provisions for both rural and urban areas across the State of Assam for containment of COVID-19 pandemic in Assam.
The ASDMA also issued directives on restrictive measures for containment of COVID-19 in both rural and urban areas across the State until further orders.
The situation of COVID-19 in the State has been reviewed and observed that, though few districts like Dhubri, Kamrup (M), South Salmara, Majuli, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Udalguri, West Karbi Anglong, Dima Hasao, Charaideo and Hailakandi have shown improvement, the number of active cases and positivity rate is still high in some districts like Goalpara, Lakhimpur, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sonitpur, Biswanath and Morigaon.
Meanwhile, Assam recorded 1,579 fresh COVID cases as of Sunday, taking the total COVID cases in Assam to 5,33,663. With 16 COVID-19 induced fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, the death toll reaches 4,828. The active cases in the state now stands at 19,972.
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