Four more COVID19 positive patients from Assam have been cured and discharged from the hospital in Golaghat.
The Golaghat district has registered 9 COVID19 positive cases so far.
“Out of the 9 patients, four were discharged today as their swab samples tested negative in four successive tests,” said Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma during a ceremony organised at the newly constructed mother and child hospital in Golaghat on Friday.
The discharged patients are 62-year-old Haidor Ali, 30-year-old Wahida Begum, 51-year-old Yakub Ali and 38-year-old Ruma Begum.
Health minister Sarma along with his deputy Pijush Hazarika, agriculture minister Atul Bora and Khumtai legislator Mrinal Saikia visited the Kushal Konwar civil hospital where the 9 COVID19 positive patients were undergoing treatment.
The chief executive member of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC), Tuliram Ronghang, was also present during the ministers’ visit.
While addressing a press conference here, minister Sarma announced that the state government might allow inter-district connectivity for the movement of the people stuck in other districts to return to their homes.
“A decision in this regard may be announced on April 21 but it will depend upon what kind of turn the events would take including the number of new cases,” said health minister Sarma.
The health minister said he is hopeful that they will be able to release the five other COVID19 positive patients, who are still undergoing treatment in Golaghat’s civil hospital, on April 22 or April 23.
“We may conduct rapid tests in Golaghat if a new case comes after April 23 but currently there is no such need. Apart from the quota of rapid testing kits that we will receive from the central government, the state government has also placed an order for one lakh such kits,” said Sarma.
On Friday, the mother and child hospital in Golaghat was converted into a dedicated COVID19 hospital for the district.
“This hospital is equipped with 56 beds for quarantine, 40 isolation beds and 24 ICU beds,” Sarma said.
Regarding the doubt aired on the quality of the PPE kits imported from China, Sarma said most of the medical equipment used in India to fight COVID19 are being imported from China.
“Somewhere in India, a set might have been rejected but for that there is no reason to make a fuss here,” said Sarma.
“Our doctors are very much satisfied with the kits we have imported. Moreover, a committee will sit and it will test the kits and the report will be submitted by this evening,” the health minister added.