Assam, Fighting the Good Fight: How The State Has Remained A Step Ahead In Combating The Deadly Corona

Assam, also known as the gateway to the north-eastern region of India, is one state that is pushing itself at the forefront of the good fight against Covid-19.

The state government had charted out its action plan early on as it seemed to have realised that the rampant spread of Covid-19 was imminent.

The Health and Family Welfare Ministry of the state, led by Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma, quickly responded by creating a multi-pronged strategy to combat the virus involving aggressive testing and tracing, community surveillance as well as quarantine infrastructure. This was not restricted to the present but also envisioned a plan for a post-Covid economy.

Today, the state, though expecting a surge in cases due to the migrants returning home, seems to be in a stronger position than ever to mitigate and manage the future onslaught of Covid-19 cases.

It is armed with seven ICMR-accredited Covid-19 testing laboratories, which is an increase from two laboratories just a month ago. With other states in the region not dependent any longer on Assam and each equipped with their own testing laboratories, the state is now testing more than ever.

Dr Sarma also announced this week that the state had surpassed Kerala in testing for Covid-19. At the time of writing, Assam had carried out 55,862 tests surpassing Kerala’s testing count of 52,771.  Kerala may be a state with an edge over other states as it is known for its healthcare system but Assam has been a proverbial dark horse in this race to overcome this pandemic.

However, Assam has not limited its outreach to just testing, the health ministry has focussed heavily on identifying cases as well. As a part of the strategy to ramp up testing, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry introduced a mammoth programme called ‘Assam Community Surveillance’.

This surveillance task involved all the villages of the state (around 28,000) to look for SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) and ILI (Influenza like Illness) and fever cases with an aim to test all such cases.

Further, the government, as per the findings of the testing (be it COVID, JE, dengue, malaria) decided as a part of its aggressive action plan to not only isolate such patients but also follow up such cases with contact tracing and appropriate treatment.

This extensive programme was started in the first week of May and within the first 12 days, health officials had already completed a survey of 18,000 villages. Further, a staggering 5,84,145 persons were surveyed, 57,436 Gram Sabha meetings were conducted, 12,901 persons who came in contact with COVID-19 positive cases were identified and tested for COVID-19 and 35 people were found positive.

Without the involvement of the community at every level these efforts would stagnate. Fortunately, due to a predominant tribal population, the customary laws in the villages/smaller urban areas ensure registration of the incoming migrants with the village headman. This practice ensured containing the spread of infection.

Another important concept that was encouraged was community quarantine, where a high-risk contact is isolated within the confines of his home in the village and the same is strictly tracked and supported by the community at large.

Not leaving anything to chance, an appeal was made to citizens to report individuals with a travel history through a helpline. The Sarathi Health Helpline 104 was made functional as early as 1 March 2020. The success of the call centre is evident in the number of calls it has received—more than 8,72,403 calls from across Assam.

Apart from focussing on tracking and quarantine, the state also reached out to its residents living in other parts of India.

The ‘Assam Cares’ monetary relief programme was launched to extend a helping hand to residents stranded outside the state. A dedicated helpline was also created to reach out to these beneficiaries. Till date, the programme has completed an astounding 4.8 lakh calls.

It has also benefitted 887 patients undergoing treatment for cancer, kidney or heart-related ailments who were stranded in various parts of the country. Monetary assistance of Rs. 25,000 has been provided to each of these patients.

Further, 73 residents of Assam stranded outside the country due to the lockdown have received $1000 each as sustenance allowance. And till date, more than 3.5 lakh Assamese citizens stranded outside the state have received financial assistance of Rs. 2,000 each.

Presently, the state is conducting 2,500 tests per day, and has planned to ramp it up to 5,000 tests a day in the coming week as there has been a spike in the cases in the last week due to migrants coming back.

As of 25 May, 358 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the state, with more than half being brought in by people coming in from other states, with a majority from Maharashtra. However, Assam is preparing on war footing with the knowledge that there are still over 2,000 people that are expected back in the coming week.

Assam has consistently planned ahead by creating a very comprehensive quarantine infrastructure. With over 30,000 quarantine and mass isolation beds, and nearly 600 ICU beds, the state has booked 1000 rooms in hotels around Guwahati and further identified schools, colleges and Bhawans for quarantine purposes. The final aim is to identify and create facilities to accommodate over 5,000 people. At the speed Assam is functioning, it seems that they will reach their target number no later than this month.

Much is also left to be said about the personal touch that the state leadership has provided its people at this crucial juncture. Rarely has one come across stories where the leadership has been present on ground, day or night monitoring the situation. Heart-warming instances of Dr Himanta Biswa Sarma and his colleague Pijush Hazarika (MoS Health and Family Welfare), personally monitoring the shifting of 18 Covid patients in Kalapahar hospital or overlooking the transfer of patients from quarantine centres to hospitals has set an example to their administration and to all of Assam’s frontline healthcare workers as well.

Their effort of leading from the front is reflected in the impressive numbers of doctors (approx. 480) that have registered under the voluntary service scheme.

Assam, in its new avatar of being a proactive state and taking challenges head on, has starting planning and preparing for a post-Covid economy as well. The Industry and Commerce Department of each district of Assam has begun to disseminate information on the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan Financial package for Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Information is being circulated to all industries and industry sssociations.

Assistance is also being extended to industries regarding collateral-free loans being offered to existing stressed units in the hope of alleviating the financial impact of the lockdown on the industrial sector.

While recognising the potential of Japanese, Korean and American companies that are shifting production facilities out of China, the state has already started discussions with Government of India and other promotion councils like Invest India, Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), US-India Business Council and US Chamber of Commerce to facilitate and advise potential companies to consider Assam as an alternative hub of production in the near future.

Ernst & Young has also been engaged to assess the impact of the lockdown and suggest a framework to attract potential industries. The enthusiasm towards attracting business opportunities to the state is palpable as the government has finally begun to recognise and leverage its strategic locational advantage, vast natural resources and robust industrial infrastructure in addition to reliable connectivity.

Much has been said about the Kerala Model, the Agra Model and the Bhilwara Model but it is the Assam model that is going to be the next model that India is going to be looking at for inspiration.

While resisting the urge to look at the fight against the pandemic through the lens of a competition, the response to Covid-19 is truly a race worth running and Assam has firmly placed itself as a top contender in the race.

The state was neither known for its health infrastructure, nor was known for its pro-active approach towards finding solutions but today with the right leadership and vision, the state has set an example for the entire country.

It brought to the forefront the reality of the fact that with resolve, tenacity and hard work, many odds can be over come and turned into success stories.