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Assam bars home quarantine for incoming passengers, says only institutional quarantine allowed

Guwahati: The Assam government Tuesday decided that home quarantine will not be allowed to people coming from outside and they will be sent for institutional quarantine, as the number of coronavirus cases rose by 139 to reach 682. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary said the state Cabinet stressed the need for strict quarantine of people coming from outside.

A meeting of the Council of Ministers, chaired by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, decided that quarantine norms would be strictly enforced in view of the spike in the number of positive cases in Assam, Patowary said after the meeting.

It was decided that people coming from outside will be sent for institutional quarantine and no home quarantine will be allowed, he said.

Meanwhile, Assam recorded 123 new COVID-19 positive cases on Tuesday, taking the total to 666 in the state, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Twenty-three cases were reported tonight -- 21 from Kamrup (Metro) and one each from Nagaon and Darrang districts, the minister said.

Earlier in the night, 27 cases were reported, all from Golaghat. Twenty-one cases were detected in the evening with Karimganj reporting seven, Goalpara five, Guwahati three, Nagaon two and Dhubri, Hailakandi, Udalguri and Lakhimpur one each.

In the morning, 47 cases were reported -- 21 in Golaghat, eight in Morigaon, four in Lakhimpur, three in Goalpara, two each in Karbi Anglong, Nagaon and the Guwahati Medical College Hospital; while one case each was reported from Hojai and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital here, the Minister said.

Golaghat reported the highest of 48 cases during the day followed by 21 in Kamrup (Metro).

Late in the night, 16 new cases were reported: six each from Hojai and Golaghat, two from Darrang, one each from Kamrup Metro and Kamrup.

Out of the Total 682 cases, there are 613 active cases, four deaths, three migrated out and 62 recovered and released from hospital.

Meanwhile, a "Microbiology Lab is set up at Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST), Guwahati. It is an annexe of Guwahati Medical College and shall increase the sample testing for #COVID19 to a large extent. The lab will start functioning soon", the Minister tweeted.

Assam has recorded a huge spike of nearly 600 cases since May 4, after restrictions on road travel were lifted.

The spike was expected to increase further with the resumption of flights from Monday.

Sarma said that the latest cases of increasing COVID-19 patients are mostly those who have returned to the state from outside.

The Minister has also clarified that swab samples are collected from people soon after they are arriving in the state, before they are transferred to the quarantine centres.

Most of the positive cases in Assam are imported and not home-grown, he said.

Meanwhile, thirteen flights have arrived and departed from Lokopriyo Gopinath Bordoloi International airport here with 1,409 inbound and 724 outbound passengers, an airport official said.

The health minister said he and his officials visited the Guwahati airport and the screening centre to review the preparations and ongoing work. "All passengers are being screened for #COVID19, and subsequently sent to their respective districts either in public or private transport", he tweeted.

Four repatriation flights are expected to land in Guwahati between May 27 to June 5, Chief Secretary Kumar Sanjay Krishna said.

The flights scheduled to arrive next week are from Ukraine, Moscow, the Philippines and Kuwait, he said.

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