Assam health and family welfare minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday laid stress on maintaining social distance to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Sarma had a review meeting with the Assam Medical College principal and doctors in the Assam Medical College & Hospital (AMCH) auditorium.
The health minister said many people in Dibrugarh district are still not serious about the situation.
He asked the district administration to take proper steps to ensure social distancing.
Reiterating that the best way to fight coronavirus is refraining people from social gatherings, minister Sarma also appealed to the doctors to make people aware of the precautions to be taken.
While coronavirus cases in India jumped to 283 on Saturday after 47 people tested positive for the deadly virus, Jorhat recorded Assam’s first coronavirus positive case on Saturday.
In the review meeting, the minister directed the Dibrugarh district administration to ensure strict compliance of home quarantine guidelines by the people, who have recent travel history to COVID-19 affected areas.
In the meeting, he also reviewed the bed and other facilities available in the isolation wards set up in AMCH and other hospitals in the district.
He also appealed to the doctors to get mentally prepared to attend patients for novel coronavirus and advised them to maintain maximum cleanliness and hygiene in the AMCH campus.
In the meeting, the Assam health minister also reviewed the testing facilities available in the ICMR-RMRC for COVID -19 and directed ICMR-RMRC authorities to conduct random community tests in some parts of the district in consultation with district administration.
Earlier, he also reviewed the screening arrangement at the Dibrugarh Airport to screen passengers for COVID-19.
The review meeting was also attended by Dibrugarh MLA Prasanta Phukan; principal secretary to health & family welfare, Samir Sinha; Dibrugarh deputy commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha and others.
