Five more persons test positive for COVID-19 in Assam

Five more persons, including two women, tested positive for COVID-19 in Assam on Thursday, taking the total number of such cases in the state to 42, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Of the five fresh cases, one was reported from Karimganj and four were from Bongaigaon district, he said.

"The person from Karimganj is a secondary contact of a Nizamuddin Markaz attendee and was in institutional quarantine," Sarma said.

In a first in the state, other new patients -- three from Bongaigaon town and one from Chaprakat -- were found to have no contact history. Their samples were sent for COVID-19 examination as they had fever.

Of the total cases reported in the state so far, 29 have recovered and one person has succumbed to the disease.

"Active hospital cases now stand at 12," Sarma said.

Bongaigaon has emerged as the new 'red zone' in the state with five cases in a week, including that of a 16-year- old girl who tested positive for the disease on Tuesday, Sarma told reporters.

The deputy commissioner has declared areas within three-km radius of the residences of those affected as containment zones, the minister said.

"Patients are being taken to Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital in Guwahati," he said.

Altogether seven persons have tested positive for COVID-19 this week.

A 61-year-old person from Goalpara was found to have contracted the disease on Tuesday.

Sarma on Thursday reviewed the prevailing situation in Bongaigaon and Nalbari districts.

Nalbari's 'red zone' status was lifted on Thursday while that of Golaghat will be removed on Friday as both the districts did not report any fresh case during the last 28 days, Sarma said.

Apart from Bonagaigaon, other districts in the 'red zone' are Dhubri, Goalpara and Morigaon.

Containment zone restrictions at a high-end apartment in Guwahati, where one person had tested positive, were lifted on Thursday.

Assam has so far tested 10,290 samples, of which 42 tested positive for COVID-19, results of 972 samples are still awaited.