Assam to release 75,000 people from quarantine
NONE OF those in quarantine has shown any signs of being coronavirus positive during the mandatory quarantine period and majority of them followed the guidelines of the health department during the home quarantine.
In what may be a major relief, the health department is contemplating to release more than 75,000 people from quarantine after completion of 14 days of observation period on Thursday in Assam while considering the option of conditional withdrawal of lockdown after April 14.
Informing that none of those in quarantine has shown any sign of being corona positive during the mandatory quarantine period, sources in the state health department said that majority of them followed the guidelines of the health department during the home quarantine. Admitting that necessity of testing all the 75,000 people in quarantine was not felt by the doctors, health department sources said that some of them with symptoms were tested but report was negative.
Assam government which has 28 corona positive cases so far was not in favour of extending the complete lockdown after April 14 and proposed “conditional withdrawal of lockdown”.
Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The state cabinet has decided that a complete lockdown will not be possible because if we extend the lockdown then next month the situation will not support many services like public distribution system. We have conveyed to Centre a conditional lockdown policy, under which there will be relaxation in some areas and more or less our proposal is same with other states.”
“On April 13 the state cabinet will meet again to decide what will be their course of action from
April 15 onwards. We should not try to speculate what will happen...let us all keep trust on Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” said the minister
In case there is withdrawal of the lockdown, the state has decided that it will not issue any guidelines of its own and instead will follow the instructions issued by the Central government, said Mr Sarma adding, “Today the cabinet decided that Assam government will not issue any instructions or guidelines relating to the lockdown on its own because this is a central lockdown and not that of the state government. We are not even going to issue any instructions to deputy commissioners, they have to implement the Centre’s guidelines only if they are satisfied that social distancing is maintained. If the Centre allows opening of shops, the deputy commissioners have to first ensure that social distancing is maintained and then they can implement the central order.”