GUWAHATI: With less than 4,000 daily average positive cases reported in last one week, the Covid-19 curve has started declining in Assam.
This has been the lowest daily average in the last four weeks, starting from May 11.
The graph of the second wave of the pandmic reached its peak between May 18-24 in Assam when 5,769 cases were detected daily on an average.
“Beyond doubt, May 18-24 was the peak time of the second wave in Assam,” executive director of Assam National Health Mission (NHM), Dr Manoj Choudhury, said.
From 5,265 daily average new cases detected from May 11-17, the corresponding figures went up to 5,769 the very next week (between May 18-24).
From May 25-31 the numbers dropped to 5,116 and between June 1-7, the daily average significantly has come down to 3,933.
The state health department is expecting a remarkable improvement in the scenario by June-end and the testing figures yielded positive outcomes at the beginning of another crucial week on Tuesday.
After a long time, the daily positivity rate came down below 3% (2.96%) on Tuesday when 3,948 new cases were detected in the state after testing touched a new height of 1,33,212 in a single day.
Kamrup (Metropolitan) district recorded 341 new cases.
Even as the recovery rate remained almost unchanged at 87.75%, Covid fatalities slightly went up to 43 from Monday’s 37 deaths.
“All we can say is that the Covid-19 curve is flattening.
In the next 10 days if the downward trend continues, Assam may reach a much safer position,” said health expert and Assam director of medical education, Dr Anup Kumar Barman.
However, the most heartening development of the day was the arrival of about 1.85 lakh doses of Covishield for the age group of 18-44 years and 50,000 doses of Covaxin for the 45+ category.
With the daily positivity rate declining, focus has shifted to vaccination.
Assam had been facing an acute shortage of vaccines, especially for the 18+ group, for more than a week.
Immunization spokesperson Munindra Nath Ngatey told TOI that bulk of the new arrivals for the 18+ are being sent to six densely populated districts where relatively more positive cases were being reported.