GUWAHATI: The Assam government has decided to make institutional quarantine mandatory for all returnees from red zones, besides restricting the daily entry of people to the state.
The earlier notification of the state government had allowed asymptomatic persons (who do not show symptoms but can be carriers of the coronavirus) to be placed on home quarantine after screening.
The move comes after an asymptomatic person, Faridul Islam, who travelled from Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan (red zone) and reached Silchar in Cachar district on Wednesday morning, tested positive for coronavirus.
“The bus on which Faridul Islam, a resident of Sonitpur district, had travelled with 41 other passengers, including eight children, had violated the 50 per cent norm after the Ajmer Sharif district administration gave permission to travel to Assam. So, this is a matter of serious concern now,” state health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters here on Thursday evening.
“Islam has some cases registered against him in police stations (in Sonitpur and Darrang) and it is also not known why he travelled by bus to Cachar and not to his home district from Rajasthan. I have personally asked the police to investigate the matter,” Sarma said.
He further said that all buses/vehicles entering the state from red zones would be thoroughly checked at the border entry points.
Meanwhile, all the passengers, including the driver and assistant, of the bus have been placed on institutional quarantine in Silchar. Subsequently, several areas in Silchar have been converted to containment zones.
The health minister said that the current phase, with thousands of people returning to Assam from red zones and from states where cases have risen considerably, “is very critical and most challenging” for which “the health and the home departments have decided to permit only a limited quota of people coming from outside the state henceforth.”
He further said that asymptomatic persons have to be in facility quarantine for at least three days before the first sample test result is known, and thereafter on the basis of the outcome, put in either facility or home quarantine.
The state government has opened screening centres at Sarusajai, Kokrajhar, Tezpur, Jorhat and Silchar.