GUWAHATI: The ambulance from Mumbai which ferried four persons, including a cancer patient and two women, who later tested COVID-19 positive in Jorhat, had entered Assam with “proper permission”.
“The ambulance entered Assam with proper permission to bring back one blood cancer patient from Jorhat, who happens to be son of one of the COVID positive patients. We do not have COVID-19 testing facilities in our border,” state health and family welfare minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma clarified on his official Twitter handle on Sunday.
According to the Jorhat district administration, the driver of the ambulance who was as per protocol, was asked to depart after dropping the four persons in Jorhat on Friday, later tested COVID-19 positive, when he was already en route to his destination in Maharashtra.
“Actually the driver left for Mumbai and we allowed him to go as he was asymptotic. Now on our request he has been stopped in Bihar for hospitalisation,” Sarma clarified.
The four persons, including the child and another person, are currently at the Jorhat Medical College and Hospital.
Ferry services stopped
Meanwhile, the detection of three COVID positive cases in Jorhat on Saturday has prompted the Majuli district administration to stop ferry services from Nematighat (Jorhat) to Majuli indefinitely as a precautionary measure.
The Assam inland water transport department had on Tuesday resumed ferry services in the Kamalabari-Nemati and Aphalamukh-Nemati ghats of the river island of Majuli with 50 per cent commuters and by adhering to all COVID-19 protocols.
Several commuters had gathered in both the ghats of the river island on Sunday but were sent back in view of the district administration’s latest directive.
The district administration had on March 21 last suspended goods and passenger transport services between Neematighat to Majuli to reduce the risk of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the river island. A special weeklong free ferry service however had to be started in the last week of April to transport people stranded in view of the lockdown.