Guwahati: As Assam starts increasing the number of Covid-19 positive cases rapidly, the BJP led State government in Dispur has made a seven-day home quarantine mandatory for people coming to the State. So all passengers arriving by flights or trains from outside Assam will have to undergo compulsorily home quarantine for a week, even if theirs corona tests emerge negative.
However, the government officials, who are traveling for medical reasons and people visiting Assam in connection with bereavements have been exempted from this directive. State chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has already ordered to make Covid-19 tests compulsory for incoming truck drivers at Srirampur and Sagolia gates. He also directed the police department to prevent any form of mass gatherings in the State. Meanwhile, during a meeting of all political parties under the chairmanship of Sonowal on Thursday in the city, the government revealed its five-fold strategies to contain the second wave of Covid-19. Presently the State has 6316 active novel coronavirus cases where the total number of infected persons has gone up to 225822 to date.
Representatives from various political parties including BJP, INC, AGP, AJP, UPPL, RJD, CPI (ML), CPI (M), Raijor Dal, NPP, etc assured all support and cooperation to the government in the mission involving testing, tracing, treatment, appropriate Covid-19 behavior, and vaccinations to very individuals in due course of time. Sonowal in presence of State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and senior government officials urged the party representatives to put up a united fight against the newfound virus prompted a pandemic. He asserted that paramount importance is given to protect the lives of people from the virus outbreak. Observing the importance of public supports towards the guidelines of health department, Sonowal appealed to the political parties to join hands with the government to sensitize people about those standard operating procedures. He also called upon them to work with the spirit of Team Assam with an aim to provide best possible treatments to the common people.
Sarma in his version, pointed out that the second wave of coronavirus is more lethal and without synchronized efforts, it would very challenging job to tackle the situation. He informed that though at present sufficient facilities are available to treat patients, but with rising numbers of positive cases the situation may be very tough, and hence focus is given to augment health facilities including increasing ICU beds, uninterrupted supply of oxygen, etc. Mentioning about the Centre’s free Covid-19 vaccines to every Indian above 45 years, Sarma declared that the State government will offer vaccines to all residents of Assam between 18 and 45 years of age free of cost. He informed that necessary funds for procuring the vaccines would be generated from the collections under Assam Arogya Nidhi last year.
The participants including Assam BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass,State Congress chief Ripun Bora, AGP president Atul Bora, AJP general secretary Jagadish Bhuyan, representatives of CPI(ML), CPI(M),UPPL, Raijor Dal, NPP, etc thanked the initiative taken by Sonowal to hold an all-party meeting to discuss the situation as Assam continues to increase the daily corona positive cases lately.
