Train passengers not screened for Covid-19

Even as the threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) looms large and the government claims it has adopted a slew of measures, the state remains vulnerable from the most potent hazard but yet ignored source-mass transportation system- such as passengers travelling by trains. 

Passengers arriving by trains to Dimapur, seem to be let off without any effort to screen them despite well founded fears that community spread of coronavirus is the main source for posing  a serious threat to public health.

Railway officials on condition of anonymity admitted before Nagaland Post that thousands of passengers arriving by trains were not being screened as it was done in stations like Guwahati, with thermal sensors.

They said about 5,000 people commute by trains everyday via Dimapur station and it was not possible to screen all of them as there were multiple entry and exit points at the station. They also added that it was impossible to track the origin of passengers given the nature of rail travel in India. For instance, there are multiple stations between Guwahati and Dimapur, where passengers, some of them ticketless hop into the train making it practically impossible to track their origin, they said.

They however claimed that awareness was being carried with passengers having symptoms being asked via public address system to come forward and self declare. 

The officials claimed that awareness campaign in the form of pasting posters in four languages – Hindi, Assamese, English and Bengali – and regular informative announcements through public address system were being carried out in the station.

They said an isolation ward had also been set up at the railway station comprising of two beds to serve as a transitory quarantine for passengers with symptoms before being referred to Dimapur district health authority. 

“It is a temporary stop before the district authority takes over,” an official explained. 

Meanwhile, Railway officials have urged passengers having any symptom or coming from any of the affected countries and regions to contact the station superintendent, so that appropriate steps could be taken and such passengers forwarded to Dimapur chief medical office.