Coronavirus fear: Assam on high alert after US tourist tests positive

Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, March 7 (EMN): The Jorhat administration in Assam on Saturday placed a river cruise, with 22 guests and 29 crew members, and a hotel in the district in isolation over the global novel coronavirus scare, according to an EastMojo report.

A team of 14 doctors and health workers, including eight microbiologists and a doctor from the World Health Organisation (WHO), has been sent to the river cruise to screen the passengers, it reported.

This comes amid reports that a 76-year-old American tourist, having a travel history to Jorhat in the month of February, had tested positive for COVID-19 in Bhutan on March 6.

Officials from Jorhat said that the patient had travelled to Jorhat on February 22 and proceeded to Guwahati via river cruise MV Mahabahu Brahmaputra on February 23. “The river cruise has returned to Neematighat in Jorhat with 22 guests and 29 crew members on board. All have been placed in isolation in the boat itself, currently stationed in Neematighat.”

They have also placed the staff of Thengal Manor—a hotel in Titabor where the American tourist had stayed on February 22—in isolation.

Reports stated that the Bhutan government has traced roughly 90 persons with whom the American tourist have came into contact since March 2 when he arrived in Bhutan from India.

127 people identified

EastMojo also reported that the Assam government has identified 127 persons in the state, and put them under surveillance, while tracing contacts of the US tourist who tested positive for coronavirus in Bhutan.

Addressing a press conference in Guwahati on Saturday, Assam minister for Health and Family Welfare, Pijush Hazarika, said that the 127 persons have been ‘home quarantined, and if they develop fever then they will be taken to an isolation ward’.

The minister informed that apart from the 127 contacts, the state has not yet been able to identify a cab, which the tourist and his partner took from a hotel to Guwahati Airport.

Assuring that there is no need to panic, the minister said that the Assam government is taking steps for the past one and half months to avoid the spread of Covid-19 in the state.

Sikkim among 6 Indian states on high alert

The north-eastern state of Sikkim has been put among six Indian states on high alert by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Saturday.

The MHA issued an alert for the six states, which includes West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim and Uttarakhand, with an advisory on the do’s and don’t’s to stop the spread of the disease.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has assured that the government is taking all necessary steps to prevent the spread of the virus.

KU bans tourists to Mon

Dimapur, March 7 (EMN): The Konyak Union has banned entry of ‘foreign and national tourists’ to Mon district, particularly during Aoleng festival, in light of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

In a press release issued on Saturday, the union requested the district administration and police to ‘strictly monitor and check for the same in every entry points to the district’.