Assam reports first coronavirus case, four-and-half-year-old-girl tests positive

Assam reported its first case of novel coronavirus with the initial test of a four-and-a-half-year-old-girl in Jorhat district with no travel history abroad turning out to be positive, Deputy Commissioner Roshni Aparanji Korati said on Saturday.

Korati told PTI that results of the test done in Jorhat Medical College and Hospital (JMCH) laboratory came positive this evening.

“We have sent the sample to ICMR-RMRC laboratory at Lahowal in Dibrugarh district for a recheck. The result is expected tomorrow afternoon,” she added.

The deputy commissioner informed that the girls family hails from Pulibor area in the district and they had recently travelled from Bihar in a train to Mariani in Jorhat.

“The girl, her sister and her mother came to Jorhat on March 19. Health workers visited the family on March 20 and brought them to JMCH as the girl exhibited symptoms. A sample was taken for testing and today evening, the result came,” she said.

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Korati said the authority has started tracing all the people who have come in contact with the girl, whose family has no history of travelling abroad.

“Everybody is being placed under home isolation, including the health workers visiting them. The family has been shifted to JMCH isolation ward,” the DC added.

Altogether, over 1.72 lakh people have been screened across Assam in measures to prevent the outbreak of the deadly COVID-19, the Health and Family Welfare Department said.

In its daily bulletin, the department said 26,094 passengers have been screened at six airports in the state till date.

While 7,181 travellers were screened at three land ports – Darranga (Baksa), Mankachar (South Salmara) and Sutarkandi (Karimganj), 1,38,919 persons have been screened so far at other places like rail stations and bus stands, it added.