Unlock 3.0 or Lockdown in Assam? ‘Might Have to Alternate Between The Two’, Says Minister Sarma | Earth Indian

Assam Lockdown News: Even as the Centre has announced guidelines for Unlock 3.0 and extended lockdown in containment zones till August 31, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has urged caution, stating that to keep the COVID-19 situation under control, the state government would like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15.

Addressing media a day after Wednesday’s announcement of Unlock 3.0 guidelines by the Union Home Ministry, Sarma, who also holds the Finance portfolio, said, “The COVID-19 situation in Assam has been improving and, according to us, till August 15, we’ll have only limited application of the Home Ministry’s guidelines for Unlock”.

The minister further remarked that the state will have to ‘alternate between limited unlock and lockdown’.

Explaining this, Sarma said, “We’d like to continue with some restrictions, at least till August 15 because we don’t want to loosen our grip on the situation which is improving. If we can maintain our current testing trend, which has been very encouraging, we might even flatten the coronavirus curb by August 15”.

Notably, in order to control the state’s coronavirus situation, the Assam government had announced lockdown and curbs in various districts of the state, including in its largest city of Guwahati. The city went under a two-week total lockdown on June 28, which was later extended by a week.

However, at the end of three weeks, the government decided not to extend the total lockdown, but announced strict lockdown for weekends.

Assam has thus far reported a total of 36,295 cases of coronavirus, as per the state COVID-19 dashboard. This includes 27,832 recoveries, 8,368 active cases, 92 deaths and three cases of patients migrating to outside Assam.

 

By Shivam Urkude || Earth Indian