Guwahati, Feb 10: With active cases less than 500 in Assam, the state health department on Wednesday has decided to discontinue mandatory COVID-19 testing at railway stations, land routes, and airports across the state from March 1.

Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma in a tweet, said, “In view of rapidly declining cases of #COVID19 & given that vaccination is in full swing, Govt of Assam has decided to discontinue mandatory testing at railway stations, land routes & airports from March 1, 2021. It’s expected however that people would adhere to #Covid appropriate behaviour.”

In view of rapidly declining cases of #COVID19 & given that vaccination is in full swing, GoA has decided to discontinue mandatory testing at rly stations, land routes & airports from March 1, 2021.

It’s expected however that people would adhere to #Covid appropriate behaviour.

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 10, 2021

Election campaigns and public rallies, however, had begun in the state from November last year in the Bodoland Territorial Region that had its council elections in December last year and now, for the Assembly elections in April this year.

The state currently has only 333 active cases and had recorded last over 50 cases in a day on January 14.

Nationally too, daily new cases continue to show a steady decline, the union health ministry stated. As per the National Health Mission, 1,08,512 health workers have been vaccinated against the contagious disease in Assam till February 9, 2021. As per the latest NHS bulletin, one COVID-related death was reported on Tuesday, taking the fatality count to 1,086. The state recorded 27 new COVID-19 cases, which pushed the total tally to 2,17,256.

India logs 11,067 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours.

The coronavirus death rate in Assam is 0.50 percent. The NHS said that 1,347 COVID positive patients died due to other reasons. The number of active cases in the state currently stands at 333. So far, 66,03,122 tests have been conducted.