Assam to Discontinue Mandatory COVID-19 Testing at Railway Stations, Land Routes and Airports, Says Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma

The Government of Assam has decided to discontinue mandatory testing at railway stations, land routes and airports starting from March 1, 2021. The decision has been taken keeping in mind the rapidly declining cases of COVID-19 and given that vaccination is in full swing, as tweeted by Assam cabinet minister of Health and Family Welfare, Himanta Biswa Sarma today morning. He also urged people to still adhere to COVID appropriate behaviour and take all necessary measures for preventing the disease transmission. 

It is to be noted that the Government of India decided to resume domestic air travel of passengers starting from May 25, 2020 after a gap of 2 months. In order to ensure the safety of the passengers during prevailing circumstances due to COVID-19 pandemic, health protocols were prescribed for compliance in respect of their passengers on arrival and departure within the state of Assam which was implemented in conjunction with the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Civil aviation. According to the guidelines, any passenger arriving in or departing from Assam had to go through mandatory testing for COVID-19. The asymptomatic passengers were instructed to go through mandatory 14 days of quarantine, with 7 days of institutional quarantine until the RT-PCR test results are declared, followed by 7 days of home quarantine.

Then in September last year, the Assam Government further relaxed quarantine rules for air and railway passengers entering the state, with passengers testing negative only having to spend 1 day in quarantine.

The COVID-19 vaccination drive in India was launched by the Honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2021. The world’s largest immunisation exercise is expected to cover around 3 lakhs of frontline healthcare workers across 3,006 sites in India.