Guwahati (Assam), July 7 : Left with no means to control the alarming spread of Covid 19 in the city , the health department has started door -to door testing of Covid in Pandu area today .
The city has reported a total of 3,736 Covid so far out which 3,293 tested in the past one week .
This step which perhaps the first of its kind in the country has been initiated after reports of massive community transmission in the city.
The health officials expect to complete 3000 tests in two days in the area which has evolved to be one of the Corona hotspots . Subsequently , tests would conducted in the other affected areas of city in the days to come .
A 14 -day lockdown from June 28 to July 12 is currently underway in the entire city and its outskirts .
“In a first of its kind initiative on mass testing in Assam, Health Dept shall carry out house-to-house #Covid tests in Ward No 2 (Pandu area) of Guwahati Municipality, starting Tuesday (July 7). We target to complete 3000 tests in the Ward in two days,” Sarma tweeted on Monday.
The situation in Guwahati city is alarming and may deteriorate further if the restrictions imposed are not followed seriously by people.
So far ,all the infections reported since June 24 in Guwahati are from the community.
Earlier, State Health Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said in a press conference that the city has formally entered the pandemic stage in Guwahati.
“Earlier, most of the cases were those with travel history who were quarantined, so the pandemic was in the states from where they had come, but now it is here,” he said .
The regional business office of State Bank of India and three floors of the bank’s northeast head office here have been sealed on Monday after a number of employees tested positive for COVID-19.
The Assam government has ordered most of the departments to shut their offices inside the secretariat complex in the capital city and asked the employees to work from home, field units and directorates after detecting four COVID-19 cases among the staff on Saturday and Sunday.
