Former Assam CM Tarun Gogoi admitted to hospital for COVID treatment

Dr Bhaskar Thakuria has been directed to submit a medical status report at 5pm daily, the order stated. The three time Congress chief minister had tweeted this morning that he has tested positive and urged all those who came in contact with him to get tested.

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi, who tested positive for coronavirus, was admitted to Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) on Wednesday and a nine-member committee has been constituted to monitor his health. Minister for Health and Family Welfare Himanta Biswa Sarma said that a committee under the chairmanship of head of Pulmonary Medicine department Dr Jogesh Sarma has been constituted to monitor the health status of the former chief minister.

Gogoi, who had tested positive Tuesday was initially advised home isolation by the doctors, but was admitted to GMCH Wednesday after he was found to be mildly symptomatic. An order issued by GMCH's Principal cum Chief Superintendent Dr Achyut Baishya and Superintendent Dr Abhijeet Sharma stated that the former chief minister on testing positive is "advised to be shifted to new paying cabin and a team of doctors will be responsible for continuous monitoring of his health status".

Besides Sarma, the other doctors of the committee are Uma Kaimal Saikia of Endocrinology, Farhin Iqbal of Cardiology, Bhaskar Thakuria of Medicine, R Das of Surgery, Biswajit Talukdar of Anaesthesiology along with Jayshri Medhi, Moinul Islam and Bubu Gogoi of medicine. Dr Bhaskar Thakuria has been directed to submit a medical status report at 5pm daily, the order stated.

The three time Congress chief minister had tweeted this morning that he has tested positive and urged all those who came in contact with him to get tested. "I have tested COVID-19 positive yesterday. People who came in contact with me during the last few days, should go for Covid test immediately", the 85-year old Congress leader tweeted.

His wife Dolly Gogoi has tested negative, party sources said. Gogoi, who represents Titabor assembly constituency in Jorhat district, is the 13th Assam legislator and the third from the Congress to test positive for Covid-19 He was examined on the previous day after his former cabinet minister and Golaghat MLA Ajanta Neog, with whom he had attended several meetings, was found infected.

Gogoi has been at the forefront of the Congress initiative to form a 'Grand Alliance', comprising parties opposed to the BJP and its allies, for the 2021 assembly polls in the state and was holding meetings regularly with members of his own party and others. He had also attended the working committee meeting of the state unit of the Congress at a hotel here and also hosted subsequent meetings at his residence in this regard.

He had also created a stir recently by saying that he had heard from his sources that the BJP was planning to project former Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi as the chief minister candidate for the polls which was denied by both the Rajya Sabha MP and the saffron party. The health minister, who was a senior minister in Gogoi's cabinet before joining the BJP, in an earlier tweet had wished him a speedy recovery.

AIUDF Chief Badruddin Ajmal, who has extended his party's support to the Grand Alliance, has also wished the former chief minister a speedy recovery.