Breaking: Kamrup (M) DC Biswajit Pegu tests negative for Covid-19

Guwahati: Biswajit Pegu, the Deputy Commissioner of Kamrup (M) was tested yesterday after he came in contact with certain people believed to be potential carriers of the Covid-19 virus. Assa Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that he was tested negative.

He was tested yesterday afternoon and then asked to go home; his result came out at 10:30 and it was negative, Biswa Sarma told the press in Guwahati. "The entire family of commissioner heath was tested two days back. They all tested negative. GMCH has two testing machines where reports come out on the same day", Sarma added.

Meanwhile, the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) has produced a VTM machine, 20,000 of which will be indigenously produced. "This will help in swab testing. Earlier Assam had to depend on other states for this gadget and we had to procure it for Rs 206. Now, the IIT Guwahati will give it for Rs 140 each", Sarma said.

With the Covid-19 positive cases ticking upwards across the state at an alarming rate, the Health Department has launched the Assam Targeted Surveillance Program (ATSP), which has begun today. Under this program, more than 50,000 random testings will be conducted within a week, Biswa Sarma informed earlier. The program, which will be carried out all the 33 districts of the state, will aim to screen persons in certain categories who have been deemed as extra volatile and likely carriers of the respiratory illness.

The Government has said that some cases have been recently discovered in certain districts where the source of the infection are suspected to be truckers and logistics carriers traveling from outside the state and thus, strict hygiene and social distancing have now been necessitated for the volatile areas such as the truck parking stations, weighbridges, petrol pumps, loading/unloading centers, godowns, dhabas, and motor vehicle garages.

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