The fresh cases were reported from six districts.
"Alert ~ 40 new #COVID19+ cases reported. 31 Jorhat, 3 Dhemaji, 2 Biswanath, 2 Dhubri, 1 Lakhimpur, 1 Dibrugarh," the minister said in a tweet.
The state now has 2,187 active coronavirus cases.
So far, eight patients have died due to the disease in Assam, while 1,960 have been cured and discharged from hospitals, Sarma said.
Besides, three more patients have migrated to other states.
In a separate tweet, Sarma said Assam is conducting around 10,000 COVID-19 tests daily and has so far tested 2,17,088 samples in 11 laboratories and some outsourced centres.
"Pleased to share that pursuing our policy of proactive & aggressive testing for #COVID19, Assam Govt has completed 2.17 lakh tests. We've been carrying out approx 10,000 tests per day after having ramped up our capacities. My compliments to our doctors & staff," he said.
After inter-state movement through road, rail and air was allowed, Assam saw a huge spike in the number of COVID-19 cases.
To screen all the people coming from outside the state, the government has imposed a mandatory institutional quarantine policy for everyone, barring some exceptions. TR NN RC