Representation Image
The Assam state government has a mammoth task on its hands – tackling the growing threat of the second surge of Covid-19 that claimed 55 people on May 6, making this the highest single-day death toll this year. 1,485 fresh cases were reported over the last 24 hours.
What is even more worrying is that the disease has now spread out of bustling urban centres to relatively secluded tea estates with as many as 90 tea garden workers testing positive, reported The Sentinel.
All these people are employed at Zaloni tea estate in Dibrugarh. The district administration has temporarily shut down the tea estate and a temporary isolation centre has been set up in two vacant staff quarters on the estate. A vaccination campaign has been planned for the workers. The district administration has also called for the closure of all weekly markets in the Tengakhat development block under whose jurisdiction the tea estate falls.
Tea is one of the largest revenue earners for Assam and tea-tribes account for at least 17 percent of the state’s population.
Meanwhile, as many as eight wards in Guwahati have been declared Covid hot-spots. These are wards numbered – 3, 8, 14, 16, 24, 28, 29 and 31. Micro-containment zones are being set up in each ward. According to The Sentinel, Ward number 28 has some of the worst affected areas such as Guwahati, Beltola, Basistha, Maidamgaon and Bormotoria, with as many as 723 cases have been reported from these areas as of May 3. This is followed by Ward number 16 where 506 cases were reported from Fatashil Ambari, Bhaskarnagar, Barshapara and Dhirenpara.
However, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is not keen on declaring the entire ward as a hotspot. He told media persons, “Declaring the entire ward as containment zone could cause inconvenience to the people in general and the businesses in particular. We want to control the spread by causing least inconvenience to the people.”
Assam is already reeling under the twin-blows of an earthquake and heavy rains, and this has only exacerbated the Covid situation, leaving more and more people vulnerable. All educational institutes including hostels and coaching centres have now been shut down indefinitely. Class 10 and 12 board exams have also been postponed indefinitely.
As per an order dated May 5, all shops and commercial establishments are to shut down at 2 P.M as would all government and private offices. A night curfew has been instituted from 6 P.M to 5 A.M everyday.
Related:
Assam rocked by earthquake, people left vulnerable amidst Covid-19
Return Assam’s land and forests to the indigenous and Adivasi people: DSG