At 8,072, Assam reports highest single day spike of Covid-19 cases

Assam on Tuesday reported 8,072 new COVID-19 cases, the highest single-day spike since the onset of the pandemic, pushing the tally to 6,61,789, Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said.

The minister said 16 more fatalities due to the disease were reported on Tuesday, five more than the previous day's figure, taking the death toll to 6,233.

The previous highest number of new cases on a single day was reported on Monday when 6,982 people had tested positive for the pathogen.

The new cases were detected from 63,944 sample tests conducted on Tuesday, Mahanta said.

The positivity rate has gone up to 12.62 per cent from 10.75 per cent on Monday.

Kamrup Metropolitan district, which primarily comprises the city of Guwahati, also recorded its highest single day increase as 1,996 infections were detected during the day, Mahanta said. The district had logged 1,491 new cases on Monday.

Among other districts, Dibrugarh logged 551 new cases on Tuesday, Cachar 474 cases and Jorhat 470 cases, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.

Of the fresh fatalities, six were reported from Cachar, two each from Golaghat and Kamrup Metropolitan, and one each from Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Nalbari, Sivasagar, Tinsukia and Sonitpur districts.

The death rate in the state currently is 0.94 per cent, while the number of Covid-19 positive patients dying due to other reasons is 1,347.

The number of active cases in the state rose to 29,560 from 23,948 on Monday.

Altogether 2,444 patients recovered from the disease on Tuesday, taking the total number of cured people to 6,24,649.

The NHM said 1,91,889 people were inoculated on Tuesday, down from 2,03,392 shots on Monday.

It said 4,02,07,994 doses of vaccines have been administered in the state so far.