Coronavirus: Ajmer Sharif returnees new worry for Assam govt

GUWAHATI: A Rajasthan-registered bus, which carried 43 pilgrims from Ajmer Sharif that falls in the red zone, to Silchar on Wednesday, has now become cause of worry for Assam after five of its passengers have tested positive in the past 24 hours, which has pushed the state’s total positive cases to 49 on Friday.
All passengers of the bus were home quarantined, but after one of them tested positive on Wednesday night, everybody, who were sent for home quarantine, were brought to institutional quarantine and their samples were taken and among them four tested positive on Thursday evening. The two drivers of the bus have also been sent to a quarantine facility.
The state government has accused the Ajmer district administration of not ensuring social distancing norms when it allowed 43 pilgrims from the state, including eight children, to travel in one bus.
“To maintain social distancing, buses are allowed to carry only half its seating capacity. But, yesterday (Wednesday) morning, one bus with permission from the district magistrate of Ajmer arrived in Silchar with 43 people from Ajmer Sharif. There were eight children among them,” Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
Himanta said a “khadim” (priest) at Ajmer Sharif Dargah arranged the bus and the group was led by the one, who is also a wanted criminal in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
“After the Nizamuddin incident, five persons testing positive in the bus from Ajmer Sharif has become the latest concern for us. Several areas in Silchar town have been declared as containment zones and the environment in Silchar town cannot be described as normal,” the minister said.
The Ajmer incident has forced the state government to revise its quarantine protocol. Himanta said, “We have decided to step up screening for all returnees from red zones. Our revised protocol now will make it mandatory for every returnee from a red zone area to compulsory stay in a quarantine facility, even if the person is asymptomatic. Earlier, the quarantine was only for symptomatic people.”
Himanta said the government had also revised the SOP for entry of the state’s stranded people returning to the state. “We will now regulate the entry of people. Health and home departments will jointly decide a daily fixed quota of entry passes, depending on the number of samples awaiting tests in the laboratories.
“We are stepping up surveillance of people coming from red zones following the Ajmer episode. It is clear now that people returning from red zone areas might have high probability of carrying the virus and it has now become highly necessary for us to be cautious,” Himanta added.