Guwahati, Jul 7 (IANS): With sharp increase of Covid-19 positive cases, Assam has achieved a good recovery rate of 67.16 per cent on Monday night, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

Sarma in a tweet said: "Our testing figures reached 4,71,221 today (Monday night). We are fast moving towards the five lakh testing mark."

He also told the media that Assam is in the fourth position in testing ratio among the states in the country, as shown by the NITI Aayog statistics.

Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said in a tweet that among the major states in the country, Delhi topped in per million tests with 32,863, followed by Andhra Pradesh with 18,597 tests, Tamil Nadu with 16,663 and Assam with 13,471.

"After the withdrawal of restrictions on public transport by the Centre, 3,11,217 natives returned to Assam by road, trains and air from different parts of the country, causing a sharp rise in the number coronavirus cases in the state. With a massive rise of Covid-19 cases, Assam's main city of Guwahati has entered into a ‘real pandemic phase' with community transmission being witnessed," Sarma said.

In just eleven days, the coronavirus positive cases in the Kamrup (Metro) district jumped to 2,741 from a mere 63. Guwahati, the headquarter of the Kamrup (Metro) district, is Assam and northeast India's main commercial city. The Assam government enforced a "complete lockdown" in the Kamrup (Metro) district for 14 days since June 28 midnight to check the spread of the disease.

Hinting to extend the "complete lockdown" for another week beyond July 12, Sarma announced some relaxations in the lockdown in the Kamrup (Metro) district.

Sarma said that standalone grocery shops would remain open for certain times but strict health and hygiene care must be maintained. According to the minister, the total number of Covid-19 cases in Assam climbed to 11,736 with active cases at 3,837, and 7,882 people having recovered while three cases migrated to other states and 14 people died.