Ninety workers at Zaloni tea estate have contracted COVID-19.
Guwahati:
Ninety workers and staff members of a tea garden in upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district have tested positive for coronavirus, forcing the district administration to declare it a containment zone. A source involved in testing of the samples, however, said that close to 150 people there have contracted the virus.
The Zaloni tea estate has been shut down.
Top officials including the Medical Inspector of Plantations and officials from the health department have been sent to the area to take stock of the situation.
The garden hospital and the two vacant staff quarters have been turned into temporary isolation centers for the positive patients.
The garden hospital and the two vacant staff quarters have been turned into temporary isolation centers for the Covid patients.
Nabajyoti Gogoi, the District Surveillance Officer of IDSP Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme), Dibrugarh said a vaccination drive would be carried out in the garden from today apart from other measures like sanitization etc.
Several organizations have been demanding vaccinations in the tea gardens as there is a possibility of the virus spreading faster with workers staying and working in close proximity.
The district administration has shut down markets nearby as a precaution.
The Deputy Commissioner Pallav Gopal Jha has asked officials across the district to close markets in their areas if the situation demands.
Assam on Wednesday reported 55 COVID-19 fatalities, the highest single-day deaths, pushing the total number of fatalities to 1,485, according to the government.
The state also registered 4,826 new COVID-19 cases, which took the tally to 2,72,751, it said.