This house-to-house testing is in addition to the 31 centres in the city where residents can voluntarily submit their samples to get tested for the coronavirus.
Abhishek Saha, Guwahati: As the number of Covid-19 cases in Guwahati continued to spike, the Assam government on Tuesday began house-to-house testing in one ward of the city, with a plan to carry out the intensive testing exercise in other wards soon.
Health department officials plan to complete 3,000 tests in Guwahati Municipality’s Ward No. 2 over the next two days. This is a first-of-its-kind mass testing initiative in Assam, state Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
“After this ward, we plan to do house-to-house tests in a few other wards. The plan is to test every household in the ward,” Lakshmanan S, Mission Director of the National Health Mission (NHM), Assam, told The Indian Press.
“We will be following a grid pattern, focusing on who is positive and who are surrounding the positive patient. We have identified areas, streets and houses. We begin from different points. As one person tests positive in a house, we will next test all immediate neighbours of that house,” Lakshmanan said.
This house-to-house testing is in addition to the 31 centres in the city where residents can voluntarily submit their samples to get tested for the coronavirus.
Guwahati, which is under a strict lockdown, reported 598 Covid-19 cases on Monday and has recorded 3,891 cases since June 24. The total number of positive cases in Assam now stands at 12,522.
