A CORRESPONDENT
TEZPUR: State Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday visited the Zonal Health Screening Centre, quarantine facility set up in Tezpur University campus and inspected the facilities made available for screening, registration and testing of all passengers returning from outside the State of Assam.
He was accompanied by MP Pallab Lochan Das, Minister of State, H&FW, Pijush Hazarika, MLAs, senior officials of the Health department, Deputy Commissioner Manvendra Pratap Singh among others.
In order to contain the spread of COVID-19, and as per directions received from the Department of Health, Government of Assam, the Sonitpur district administration has set up a Zonal Screening Venue at Tezpur Central University, Napaam to screen all people belonging to the five districts falling under the North Assam division ie., Udalguri, Sonitpur, Biswanath, Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts, who will be returning from outside the State.
Sarma first inspected the screening venue set up at the community hall being used for screening of passengers and then the Kendriya Vidyalaya which has been used to set up an institutional quarantine facility of 250 people capacity. He later had a brief meeting with senior district and health department officials along with top administrators of Tezpur Medical College and Hospital and issued necessary directives to ensure proper screening and registration and subsequent monitoring of all people who report at the venue.
The minister also interacted with the Vice-Chancellor of Tezpur Central University, Dr VK Jain and informed him that the quarantine facility at KV would not be used to house any COVID-19 positive patient but would only be used for screening and observation of all inbound people. All COVID-19 positive patients will kept and treated at the isolation ward at Tezpur Medical College and Hospital or other dedicated COVID hospitals identified for the purpose. The minister assured him that the government would take all precautionary measures for the safety and security of the residents of the campus.
The minister later briefed the media about various steps taken to deal with the current situation prevailing due to COVID-19 pandemic.