Assam COVID Test Fear: 400 Train Passengers Flee from Jagiroad Railway Station, 60 Caught

Jagiroad: Around 400 train passengers fled from the Jagiroad railway station to skip the COVID test. The incident took place on Sunday. Till Monday morning, police officials have nabbed 60 passengers.

The incident took place at the Jagiroad station around 60 kilometres from Guwahati.

Sources said that the Jagiroad police launched an immediate hunt to catch the offenders and get them tested. The train passengers, who were mainly migrant workers, including women and children, travelled by Kanyakumari-Dibrugarh Vivek Express.

As per the Assam government's revised rules on account of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, all incoming passengers are meant to undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and RT-PCR tests on arrival.

According to the reports, the incident seemed like a replay of a similar one that was reported in Bihar last month. Dozens of people, some with young children, had back then rushed out of a railway station in Buxar fearing COVID testing.

In the first week of May, the Morigaon district administration, in association with the district health department, has been taking all necessary measures to reopen the Jagiroad Paper Mill Hospital as a COVID hospital.

On Sunday, Assam has recorded nearly 6,000 fresh COVID cases, taking its overall figure of infections to over 3.65 lakh. It also registered nearly 80 deaths related to the pandemic putting the state's overall fatalities at 2,667.

Also Read: First COVID casualty in Jagiroad

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