Guwahati, June 21 (PTI): A total of 133 more people tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday, taking the tally in the state to 5,388, Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Of the 133 fresh cases, 73 are from Kamrup (Metro), 31 from Nagaon, 18 from Jorhat, five from Udalguri, two each from Golaghat and Majuli and one each from Dhemaji and Tinsukia, the minister said.
Assam currently has 2,174 active cases. Nine people have died due to the disease so far, and three have migrated out of the state.
The recovery rate improved to nearly 60 per cent, with 136 more patients discharged on Saturday from various civil, district and model hospitals.
Altogether 3,202 people have recovered so far.
The total number of coronavirus tests conducted in the 12 laboratories of Assam has climbed to 2,73,047.
A total of 35,611 people have been placed under institutional quarantine, and 88,904 under home quarantine.
Meanwhile, the Assam Targeted Surveillance Program (ATSP), which aims to conduct more than 50,000 random tests in a week, continued for the fifth day on Sunday.
"We aim to conduct more than 50,000 random tests in a weeks time, targeting vulnerable areas," the minister said.
Under the programme, samples of people working in locations such as parking lots for trucks, loading and unloading centres, godowns, weigh bridges, roadside eateries will be collected and sent for examination.
Employees in hotels, which are currently being used as institutional quarantine centres, will also be tested under ATSP, along with frontline workers
.
The programme will also cover the family members and co-residents at homes of people who have been released from the institutional quarantine, he said, adding that the future course of action for containment of the pandemic shall be based on these test results.
The entire exercise is expected to be over by June 27 and shall involve deputy commissioners of each district who will ensure the availability of adequate facilities for the initiative, Sarma said.
As part of the efforts to facilitate sample examination without having to visit hospitals, some facilities have been identified by the health department, where swab collection will be carried out for free, hes added.
