GUWAHATI: The Assam government has decided to engage social organisations and residents across districts to monitor people returning from other states and sent to home quarantine.
The decision comes in the wake of the Centre’s decision to restart passenger train operations from Tuesday.
Assam health and family welfare minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma on Monday told reporters that a committee would be constituted to ensure that people sent to home quarantine in towns and villages adhere to the guidelines and do not venture out of their homes.
“With the resumption of passenger train services from May 12, it would be very difficult to screen and test thousands of returnees at a time and unsafe to keep them at a particular location. So we have taken a decision to engage social organisations and local people to ensure that the returnees sent to home quarantine stay indoors and none from the family also comes out of the house till the 14-day quarantine period is over,” Sarma said.
The minister said respective deputy commissioners would be directed to share the lists of people sent to home quarantine with the committee.
“The houses where the people undergo home quarantine would be treated as containment zones and the respective committees would ensure that the essentials are delivered safely at the entrance,” Sarma said.
He estimated that an every of about 10,000 people will be reaching each district of the state in the next 45 days.
The minister said that a zonal screening centre would be opened in Dibrugarh in the next two to three days to screen returnees who arrive at the Upper Assam town from New Delhi.
Such screening centres have already been set up in Guwahati, Kokrajhar, Jorhat, Tezpur and Silchar.