A total of 7,302 people stranded outside Assam have entered the state so far during the nationwide lockdown imposed in view of COVID19 pandemic, said health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference in Guwahati, health minister Sarma said, “Till date, a total of 3,255 stranded people have entered Assam through the Srirampur check gate and 342 people through the Chagolia check gate during the lockdown.”
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A total of 3,705 people, who remained stranded in several Northeast states due to lockdown, have also entered the state, he added.
Stating that it is not possible to test the samples of all the people coming from other states, health minister Sarma said, “After the arrival of the people in Assam from other states, the fight against COVID19 will move towards a determining phase.”
He, however, said while the passengers having symptoms will be tested for COVID19 and the others will be sent for 14-day mandatory home quarantine.
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Sarma informed that a special train from New Delhi to Dibrugarh will arrive in Assam on Wednesday with 1,000 passengers.
He said the New Delhi-Dibrugarh train will run for one week.
“The train will arrive in Assam crossing Moghalsarai and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Barauni in Bihar and New Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, which are highly affected by Coronavirus,” said Sarma.
“We proposed to send trains at a slow pace. But the central government made it clear that pressure has been created by various states to transport back the stranded people as several people have been affected by COVID19 in those states,” Sarma said.
“So, the Centre has decided to take back those people to Assam on a regular basis,” he added.
He also said efforts are on to take back the people stranded in Kerala and Bengaluru.
Health minister Sarma informed that out of the total people, who will arrive in Assam by train on Wednesday, 37 will unboard in Guwahati, 2 in Mariani and 8 in Kokrajhar and 842 in Dibrugarh railway station.
More other people will also unboard at Marinai and Lumding.
However, he said all the people who will unboard at Dibrugarh station are not residents of the district.
There will also be other people who are residents of Lakhimpur, Dhemaji and Arunachal Pradesh.
He informed that during the community surveillance started across the state, a total of 7,782 people have been found with fever.
These people have been identified from 10,000 villages in Assam, the health minister informed.
There are still 20,000 villages where the surveillance teams will go and identify if there is any person who is suffering from fever.