Centre projects there will be 65,000 COVID-19 cases in Assam by Aug 30: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Guwahati: According to the Indian Government's estimates, the number of COVID-19 cases in Assam will skyrocket to 65,000 by August 30, the State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has informed while recently briefing the media.

"The Government informed us that the number of patients in Assam will be 65,000 and in Guwahati alone, the patients will number 30,000", Sarma said.

The health minister informed that the GoI informed about these projections via a letter dashed off to the Assam State Government recently. "Today, officials are holding discussions over the matter. According to the letter, the number of COVID-19 cases in Nagaon will rise to 2,400, the number of cases in Guwahati will rise to 32,000, while the number of patients across Assam shall rise to 65,000", Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

The health minister also informed that it is not clear on what basis these projections have been made, and said that discussions regarding the matter shall be held soon. This bombshell has been dropped by the Centre at a time when the state is already faced with the double whammy of flood and COVID-19 cases as well as deaths.

To arrest the spread of the dreaded contagion, lockdowns have already been imposed in several areas across the state, including the buzzing Guwahati city – the largest urban area. The lockdown that officially came into effect on June 28 has been extended and will only be lifted in phases.

Assam Coronavirus Update:

Yesterday, 1,218 more COVID-19 cases were detected in Assam, out of which 570 cases were reported from Guwahati.

With this spike in the number of cases, the tally stood at 21,864 with 7,705 of the cases 'active' ones.

Patients were discharged throughout the day and in total, 551 people were sent home after recovering from the dreaded disease.

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