A door-to-door Covid-19 testing programme has been launched here on Tuesday following a surge in Covid-19 cases in the past two weeks. Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is personally monitoring the programme in the Pandu area of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC), and is asking people to cooperate, not panic.
"In the state, 786 new cases were detected on Monday night. Of this, 598 were from Guwahati alone. We aim to conduct 3,000 tests in the Ward No 2 (Pandu area) in two days," he said. According to the Health and Family Welfare Department officials, the state government has procured 200,000 rapid antigen testing kits for quick testing.
The pilot project was launched in the Pandu area as it turned into a hotspot of 'community transmission". "Among the 33,000 population, majority have no travel history," said an official.
After withdrawal of travel restrictions, 3,11,217 people returned to Assam by road, trains and air from different parts of the country, which raised the number of coronavirus cases, they said.