GUWAHATI: A tea estate in Assam has been shut down after 198 workers and their family members tested positive for Covid-19.

The cases were reported over the past two days from the Zaloni Tea Estate in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh district. The district authorities declared the garden a containment zone.

Health officials rushed to the garden to take stock of the situation. They said all measures were being taken to contain the spread of the virus.

"I have received reports that 198 people tested positive at the garden so far. It has been shut down and declared a containment zone," District Surveillance Officer of Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, Nabajyoti Gogoi.

He said the patients had been kept at the garden hospital and some halls in the garden. He also said the health officials were vaccinating the garden’s other workers and their family members who tested negative.

Even as the health officials are battling the pandemic at this garden, they were sent into a tizzy after around 60 other cases were reported from two adjoining tea estates.

"We have sent our teams to the two gardens and are awaiting further details," Gogoi said.

He added that a vaccination drive would be launched at the gardens. Upper Assam is a tea belt.

The overall Covid situation in the state worsened this week. Fifty-five deaths occurred on Wednesday. Several wards of Guwahati, which are recording more than the average number of cases, have been declared containment zones.