Assam reports 1,782 new COVID-19 cases, 24 deaths

Guwahati, Jul 16 (PTI) Assam on Friday reported 24 more COVID-19 deaths, raising the caseload to 5,44,227, according to a bulletin issued by the National Health Mission, Assam.

As many as 1,782 more people tested positive for the infection in the last 24 hours.

The COVID-19 death toll increased to 4,961, while the number of active cases currently in the state is 18,222.

Of the 24 fatalities in the last 24 hours, three deaths each were reported from Jorhat and Lakhimpur districts, two each in Dhubri and Kamrup Metropolitan, and one each in Baksa, Barpeta, Biswanath, Bongaigaon, Cachar, Charaideo, Darrang, Dibrugarh, Goalpara, Hailakandi, Karimganj, Morigain, Nalbari, and Tinsukia.

The NHM said 1,347 more COVID-19 patients have died till now, but the government's Death Audit Board has not included them in the tally of deaths caused by the COVID-19 virus as they had other ailments too.

With the detection of 1,782 COVID-19 cases against the testing of 1,27,490 samples on Friday, Assam has reported a positivity rate of 1.40 per cent for the day, the bulletin said.

Out of the new cases, 175 COVID-19 patients were detected in Golaghat, followed by 174 in Kamrup Metropolitan, 127 in Lakhimpur, and 114 in Sivasagar.

The overall positivity rate stands at 3.24 per cent against the total testing of 1,67,75,012 samples so far.

During the day, the state reported more recoveries than the number of new infections.

As many as 2,656 patients were discharged from facilities in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

In Assam, 5,19,697 COVID-19 patients have recuperated from the disease so far.

Over 86.38 lakh people have been vaccinated, of whom 14,97,423 have received both doses.

A total of 97,818 persons were vaccinated on Friday, up from 69,961 shots administered on Thursday. PTI TR MM MM