"Ruthless quarantine with a human heart," Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said.
With migrant workers returning to Assam and being quarantined, Assam is witnessing a spike in the number of coronavirus cases. Wednesday saw the maximum spike in the state with 42 cases. This includes a two-month-old who had returned with its parents from outside the state.
The quarantine centres appear to have become the new worry as several cases have been reported from there since Monday.
Since May 18, Assam has reported 57 COVID-19 cases. At least 40 of them had returned from outside the state and were mostly in institutional quarantine. A few were under home quarantine.
Assam's doubling rate, calculated over an average of seven days, was 10.14 days as of May 17 when the total number of cases in the state was 100. The doubling rate it went down to half within two days, to 5.42 days.
Out of 157 coronavirus cases in Assam that the state government has recorded, 114 are actives cases and under treatment. 41 people have been cured and discharged from hospital, two have migrated and four have died, including two whose tests came out positive after their death.
The number of cases in the state rose by nearly 57 per cent in the last two days.
A top state health department official indicated that Assam, which has done well until now in containing the spread of coronavirus, is now worried with the “dipping” doubling rate with the migrants returning.
Government sources have told NDTV that soon, a stricter quarantine protocol will be in place. As per this protocol that will soon come into effect, not just the person in quarantine but other family members living in the same house will have to adhere to the norms of quarantine.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had earlier this week said that the government has embarked on the policy of “ruthless quarantine with a human heart”, stating that there is no link between opening up of businesses and the increase in the number of COVID -19 cases.
Mr Sarma also estimated that Assam would need to quarantine around one lakh people and would cost the state exchequer around Rs 300 crore.