Four new cases of COVID-19 with no history of contact with any other positive patient have been detected in Assam on April 30, taking the total tally to 41 in the state.
All four have been reported from Bongaigaon district, where a teenager was tested positive two days ago.
The source of the infection in the teenager’s body is not clear as there was a gap of 36 days between coming into contact with her grandfather, who was among the Nizamuddin Markaz returnees who later tested positive for COVID-19, and her testing positive.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was visiting Bongaigaon on April 30 to oversee the situation there, said, “There is no contact history with any positive case for these four patients. Their samples were collected as they were running fever.”
“One of the woman detected today lives in the hospital colony, so we might suspect that she may have contracted the virus since another positive patient had visited the hospital. But even if we stretch for possible contacts for the others, there is nothing for the other three patients,” he added.
He further said, “This is the first time we are getting four cases from the community, but we cannot call it community transmission. However, these are cases with no contact history.”
Sarma said thorough tracing of contact history of the patients have started and hoped that a clearer picture will gradually emerge.
All the five positive patients of Bongaigaon are being transferred to MMC Hospital in Guwahati on April 30, while the Bongaigaon district is being declared a red zone and upto 3 km radius of the areas of residence of the patients are being sealed off.
With the latest detection, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the state has risen to 41, with one person succumbing to complications related to the infection, and 29 recovered till now.
