SHILLONG: The special train from Chennai to Guwahati was crowded and no physical distancing was maintained.
A person who arrived in Guwahati on Friday night said, “The entire berth was full of people, so there was no question of maintaining social distance”.
He added that all the seats in the berth were full.
When asked how food was made available to them since the railway junctions were closed, he said they were given food packets in some major junctions on their way back to Guwahati.
The returnees who reached Guwahati were ferried in buses to Shillong.
Not sure of quarantine nature
An official of the government lodged in Polo Grounds to receive the returnees said he is not in a position to comment whether these returnees would be sent for home or institutional quarantine.
He said that a medical testing centre has been setup in Polo and based on the decision of the doctors, necessary action would be taken.
As many as 4681 residents of Meghalaya who were stranded in North eastern states and other parts of the country have returned till Friday evening.
Informing this, Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong said that most of them are in community created quarantine centres.
Giving details of the samples sent for testing for COVID-19, Tynsong said that altogether 2712 samples have been tested out of which 2597 are negative and the results of 102 samples are awaited.
