Jorhat superintendent of police (SP) Mrinal Talukdar and all the additional SPs have been directed to undergo home quarantine after two constables in the SP’s office tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday.
The positive constables have been shifted to Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH).
Jorhat is witnessing a sharp upswing of community spread with more than 15 such positive cases coming to the fore in the past few days.
Jorhat deputy commissioner Roshni A Korati revealed that in the past few days 17 cases were reported.
The positive persons had no travel history and that contact tracing was going on to contain the spread.
“Today out of the seven positive cases two were of orderlies working in the SP’s office and two of pick up van drivers. All of them do not have any travel history,” Korati said.
The homes of the infected persons have been declared containment buildings.
She further said that most of these cases had gone on their own to be tested after they noticed some symptoms.
The DC emphasized that efforts were on to trace the contacts so that the spread could be contained.
Meanwhile, the Saturday and Sunday lockdown in the urban areas had been extended now to suburban areas.
From Monday the earlier rule of 50 per cent shops opening on one day and the other 50 per cent on the other day would come into force in Jorhat.
The SP said that swabs of all police and other personnel in his office complex had been taken and that the complex had been sanitized.
“Office will be attended only for emergency work,” he said.