After a Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) hostel in Guwahati was declared containment zone on May 8 following a PG student detected as COVID-19 positive, the adjoining Regional Dental College Hostel was also sealed off on May 9 as a dentist also tested positive late night on May 8.
A dentist of the dental college, who was engaged in COVID-19 screening duty from April 25 to May 1, tested positive for the virus on May 8 night. The hostel of the college was declared containment zone by Kamrup Metro administration on May 9. The dentist was in self-quarantine since May 1, when her screening duty had ended, and swab sample of the dentist, along with three others from the same college who were in screening duty with her, were sent for testing.
The result of one of the dentists turned out positive, while the rest were found negative.
The dental college was closed for treatment since the lockdown and only palliative care was being provided.
Samples of all 40 boarders of the college hostel – mostly PG students and interns – have been sent for tests.
Meanwhile, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said samples of 529 staff of GMCH have been sent for tests, out of which results of 357 have been declared so far and all were found negative.
Dismissing possibility of Guwahati being declared ‘Orange zone’ at the moment, he said, “Instead, we will go for the containment zone and buffer zone strategy, so that public inconvenience is minimum.”
Altogether 59 positive cases of COVID-19 have been detected in the state so far, with 34 patients having recovered till now.
