Gauhati HC Expresses Concern About COVID Situation in Assam, Asks Govt to Act Tough

Guwahati: Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said that the Gauhati High Court has expressed concern and anxiety about the growing COVID cases in Assam and asked the government to take stringent measures to ensure compliance with COVID norms.

"High Court has directed the Deputy Commissioners and the Police to stringently implement the Rs 500 fine for all those not wearing masks and this should be made compulsory. DCs and SPs has been made personally liable to play the necessary role in ensuring that people wear masks. The Court will monitor how much fine has been collected," Sarma said.

A meeting of the government, district administration and police would be held tomorrow to work out how best to monitor and implement what the Court directive says.

"We will implement the fine very very strictly," the minister said.

He further added that now as per the Central government's directives, states can no longer announce lockdown. States can do it only with the permission of the Centre. As such, other than masks and social distancing the state is left with hardly any other option to fight COVID. "The only other things we can do are go for odd-even for cars or maybe pre-open the night lockdown hours. We will also see if we can distribute masks free of cost to the poor and underprivileged people like we did for the tea tribes people," the minister said.

The government would launch a massive awareness campaign to make people aware and make them understand why masks and social distancing are necessary.

The positivity rate has increased from 4.5% to 6.2%. "The situation is getting more complicated. It will become impossible for the government to take care of a very large of COVID patients," the minister said.

The number of COVID patients in Assam stands at 1,18,333. The number of recoveries are at 90,697. Active cases stand at 27,303 and the number of people who lost their lives to COVID has reached 330.