Flag march in Assam districts as Covid situation remains grim

GUWAHATI/JORHAT: Police and paramilitary forces conducted flag march in many parts of Jorhat and Golaghat districts on Monday as the

Covid situation

in the two upper Assam districts continues to remain grim.

The flag marches were conducted in a bid to strictly enforce

Covid protocols

in the districts which remain vulnerable due to high number of positive cases in the last 10 days. The situation has remained unchanged even after the government declared total containment throughout the two districts for a six-day period beginning July 7. This besides, the state government had also declared the districts of Goalpara,

Sonitpur

,

Biswanath

,

Morigaon

and Lakhimpur as total containment zone from July 7.

Jorhat SP Ankur Jain said,“We have intensified our operations to enforce Covid norms and ensure that strict action is taken against those defying the guidelines. Our teams are even using buses and trucks to pick people and motorcycles found on roads.”

The SP said strict actions have been also been taken against bootleggers running illicit liquor dens. “We have seized and destroyed large amount of illicit liquor in tea garden areas spread across Teok and Mariani. Similar operations are also being conducted along the Assam-Nagaland border areas,” he said.

Police and paramilitary forces conducted flag march in both urban and rural areas in Jorhat town, Teok, Titabor and Mariani to enforce Covid norms following rampant violation of the Covid protocols by locals. Security forces have also used drones to conduct aerial surveillance in in some rural areas such as Chintamonigarh in Teok to keep a tab on people defying Covid guidelines.

Jorhat deputy commissioner (DC) Ashok Kumar Barman ordered total lockdown in the district on Monday and Tuesday. The grocery shops, which were allowed to open, have been ordered to remain shut for 48 hours beginning Monday. “In view of the surge in Covid positive cases all retail shops, vegetable and fruit stalls will remain close for two days in the entire Jorhat district,” the order stated.

In northern Assam’s Biswanath district all grocery shops, vegetable and fruit vendors shall remain close from Tuesday.

Biswanath DC Pranab Kumar Sharma said, “To prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the district all grocery shops, vegetable and fruit vendors have been ordered to remain close from tomorrow (Tuesday) till further notice.”

Golaghat DC Mrigesh Narayan Baruah on Monday ordered closer of all grocery shops, retail outlets, vegetable and fruit stalls in the entire district for two days beginning Tuesday. Security forces will conduct flag march in both rural and urban areas. Police detained about 300 people for defying Covid norms in Golaghat district. Police also seized 135 vehicles and sealed 19 shops for violation of Covid norms in the last 36 hours.

A police officer told TOI that fine amounting to over Rs 3 lakh have been collected from violators of Covid norms in Golaghat on Monday. “We have also demolished 20,000 litres illicit liquor in the district on Monday,” the police officer said.

State health department has blamed Covid situation in a few districts, which are under total containment, for the slow decline in positive cases.

Assam NHM director Lakshmanan S said the decline in the state’s daily cases have been quite slow. This, he said has been the major worry along with higher positivity in a few districts.

“If we can hit less than 2,000 cases by this week that can be a significant improvement. Targeted testing have been ramped up in locations from where most cases are being reported,” he said.

Even as districts like Cachar, which remained most vulnerable, has improved remarkably, Lakshmanan cautioned that all trends can reverse in case “something new” happens.

“Something new is going to happen in some point of time. But prior to that our target is bring the number of cases to at least 100,” he said while cautioning the public to strictly abide by the Covid norms so that second wave doesn’t transform into a third wave.

Golaghat, Kamrup (Metropolitan) and Jorhat districts recorded highest number of cases in the last 10 days. While Golaghat topped with 2,474 cases, in Kamrup (Metropolitan) and Jorhat reported 1,868 and 1,702 cases respectively during the period till Sunday evening. On the other hand, in districts like South Salmara Mancachar and West Karbi Anglong, despite low vaccination, less than 100 cases have been reported in 10 days. Lakshmanan said whereas overall positivity rate of Assam came down to less than two per cent, only some vulnerable districts were still showing four to five per cent positivity.