Guwahati/ Mangaldai/ Diphu, Jan 6 (PTI) Assam reported a spike of over 250 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday with 844 fresh infections, pushing the state’s overall caseload to 6,23,332, a National Health Mission (NHM) bulletin said.
The day’s fatalities caused by the virus decreased to two against four deaths the previous day.
The CRPF Cobra battalion camp at Dalgaon in Darrang district has been declared a containment zone following the detection of 65 COVID-19 cases on the campus since Monday, an official report said.
Another report said that Diphu, the Karbi Anglong district headquarter, has also been witnessing a surge in new infections due to an inflow of youth from different parts of the country for an Assam Rifles recruitment rally.
Thirty-five new cases were detected in the district on Thursday, of which 18 were at the Diphu Railway Station.
The fresh COVID-19 cases in the state were detected from 35,562 tests conducted during the day, with the day’s positivity rate spiking to 2.37 per cent.
The positivity rate had been increasing over the last two days, with the rate being 1.72 per cent and 1.29 per cent on Wednesday and Tuesday respectively.
While the increase in fresh infections was over 100 on Wednesday compared to the previous day, the rise was more than 250 on Thursday.
The state had reported 591 new COVID-19 cases, including the first Omicron case, on Wednesday, while it was 475 on Tuesday and 351 on Monday.
Among the new cases on Thursday, Kamrup Metropolitan, which primarily comprises Guwahati city, reported the highest number with 369 cases.
The district has been witnessing a surge in fresh infections, with 279 detected on Wednesday, which was a sharp rise from 190 and 164 over the preceding two days.
Jorhat district reported 57 new cases on Thursday, followed by Kamrup (Rural) with 52 and Darrang with 50.
With the detection of 65 new cases in the last four days, the 210 CRPF Cobra battalion camp in Dalgaon has been declared a containment zone and sealed by the Darrang district administration on Thursday evening.
The arrival of a large number of people from outside the state by train for an Assam Rifles recruitment rally in Diphu has led to an increase in fresh infections in the town, the official report said.
Altogether 18 cases were detected in the railway station during the day, taking the total number of new cases in the district to 35. Twelve rail travellers had tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Diphu Railway Station on Wednesday also.
The two coronavirus fatalities during the day were from Bongaigaon and Dima Hasao districts, with the overall toll reaching 6,176.
The death rate remained at 0.99 per cent, while the number of COVID-19 patients dying due to other reasons also stood at 1,347.
The number of patients who were discharged from different hospitals and Covid Care Centres after recovering from the infection on Thursday was 132, lesser by 64 compared to the 196 recoveries the previous day.
The total number of cured COVID-19 patients in the state has risen to 6,13,120 with the recovery rate at 98.36 per cent.
The active COVID-19 caseload in the state is currently at 2,689, higher than the 1,979 active cases the previous day.
The NHM further said a total of 3,84,92,526 doses of vaccines have been administered in the state thus far.
This includes 2,23,04,230 first doses and 1,61,88,296 second doses.
A total of 2,16,510 persons were vaccinated on Thursday, an increase from 1,82,183 shots administered on Wednesday.
The Assam government on Monday launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive for teenagers in the age group of 15-18 years.
A total of 1,15,007 people in the age bracket of 15-18 years have received the first jab of Covaxin across the state on Thursday, the NHM said.