Assam government has now changed its protocol for the stranded people arriving to the state
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has claimed that after Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi, pilgrims returning from Ajmer Sharif in Rajasthan might become a reason of concern amid the coronavirus pandemic. The comments come after a man, part of a group of pilgrims from Assam who had returned from the Ajmer Sharif shrine in a bus, had tested positive. Several people in Assam's Cachar district have been quarantined as a result.
The Assam government has now changed its protocol for the stranded people arriving to the state - people returning to the state from Red Zones will have to mandatorily stay in quarantine facilities and undergo a mandatory test for COVID-19.
"Earlier we had decided to send all asymptomatic cases who come from outside to home quarantine, but now we got a case who has tested positive and had returned after pilgrimage from Ajmer Sharif dargah in Rajasthan, thus we have decided to update our quarantine protocol that we will put people coming from red zone to institutional quarantine at least till we get the person's corona test report," Mr Sarma said.
The state government has also decided that it will issue e-passes for stranded people to return to Assam only in a staggered manner depending upon availability of quarantine facility.
The state government has also decided to cap the number of e-passes to be issued per day depending upon the quarantine facility.
Mr Sarma said the Deputy Commissioner of Ajmer had issued the permission to the bus to bring back the pilgrims to Assam but violated the rules since the permission was supposed to have been given for half of the capacity of the bus to maintain social distancing. But the Ajmer district administration allowed 42 persons, including eight children, in one bus, he added.
The person who tested positive belongs to Sonitpur district of Assam but travelled to Silchar in southern Assam.
Assam has further claimed that the person had pending police cases against him in his home district and so he returned to Cachar with this group.
The state police has been asked to probe about this patient.