COVID-19: Assam gearing up to test thousands of train passengers daily

* 10,000 screenings done in Assam daily

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: With many passengers reaching Assam via seven Shramik Specials and three regular trains from various parts of the country, the administration is beefing up its anti-COVID measures — including screening and quarantining of corona-affected patients — at the different train stations across the State. While a few of these trains have already reached Assam, a few others are on the way. Meanwhile, the State is carrying out approximately 10,000 tests daily after having ramped up the capacities, tweeted Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday. Till date, 2,17,088 coronavirus tests have been conducted in Assam.

Senior police officer and Managing Director of ASTC Ananda Prakash Tiwari — who is supervising the overall operations at the train stations — told The Sentinel, "Some of the 11,000 passengers have already reached Assam. They travelled in five Shramik Specials from Kerala and two from Karnataka. Besides, 2,100 passengers came in the two regular trains from New Delhi and one from Mumbai. Approximately 2,000 passengers have got down in Guwahati till date."

NFR PRO Nripen Bhattacharyya said, "A number of trains will arrive in the next few days."

A few days back, State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that 25,000 Assamese from Kerala will be arriving in 17 trains. "I'm expecting a spike in COVID cases in the next seven days," he stated.

Of the total 2,17,088 tests, altogether 35, 783 samples were outsourced for COVID testing from Assam. While 39,466 tests have been done in Guwahati Medical College & Hospital (GMCH); 34,394 in Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College and Hospital (FAAMCH), Barpeta; 25,937 tests in Jorhat Medical College & Hospital (JMCH); 25,592 in Tezpur Medical College & Hospital (TMCH); 20,952 tests were done in Silchar Medical College & Hospital (SMCH); 17,910 in Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC-ICMR) Lahoal in Dibrugarh district; 11,576 in Assam Medical College & Hospital (AMCH); 4,151 in Institute of Advanced Studies in Science & Technology (IASST); 927 in Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO), 291 in Diphu Medical College & Hospital (DMCH), and 109 in North East Institute of Science & Technology (NEIST), revealed Minister Sarma.

Also watch: 10 Trains with 14,000 People Reaching Assam