In an initiative by the Assam government to flatten the rising coronavirus curve in the state capital, 31 COVID-19 Counselling Centres (CCC) have been activated on June 25, the Health minister said.
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Kamrup (Metro), under which Guwahati city falls, has so far reported 552 cases, with a majority from the municipal area of the city. Sophisticated machines will be available at the CCCs for voluntary testing of samples for COVID-19 and the results will be known immediately. Altogether 33 such CCCs, including the ones in Guwahati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) and Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH), will provide these facilities.
"We have activated all 31 CCCs in each and every ward of the Guwahati Municipal Corporation. I urge citizens of Guwahati to use these facilities and come forward for voluntary testing for COVID-19," the Health Minister said.
These CCCs have been set up in a school of each ward and the centre will be gradually transformed into mini hospitals with doctors, nurses and lab technicians so that the entire process from testing to detection and isolation can be done at the same place, an official said. The CCCs will also provide COVID-19 counselling, shifting of positive cases to isolation centres and disseminating information about the virus.
The minister had earlier said that cases in Guwahati will continue to increase and it will take at least one month to flatten the curve. There has been a spike in the number of cases in the city since last week and the minister had said that the "situation in Guwahati is alarming and our focus is now on how to control COVID-19 here so that it does not spread to the community level in other districts".
A complete lockdown has been imposed for 14 days since June 23 in 11 wards of the city from where maximum cases have been reported. Assam has so far reported 6,370 cases and out of these 2,400 are active cases, 3,958 have recovered, nine have died and three migrated out of the state. Meanwhile, the state health department has been also reaching out to people through its helpline 104 or Sarathi for receiving information and providing guidance.
The centre has so far received 10,48,552 calls and out of these 3,42,249 are related to COVID-19. The state health department has also laid emphasis on dealing with positive patients and their family members, since March 31 when the first case was detected in the state. Initially, the patients were counselled by few doctors but later a need for more concerted effort was felt to deal with the issue, an official said. This led to the formation of a volunteering network Monon, comprising psychiatrists, psychologists, clinical psychologists and counsellors to help COVID-19 patients and also those in quarantine, he said.
