COVID tests again at Airports and Railway Stations in Assam

The Assam government on Friday announced that its earlier order of suspending COVID-19 tests at airports and railway stations has been kept in “abeyance” and such clinical examinations at the said places will continue.

Earlier this month, the government had decided to discontinue mandatory COVID-19 testing at airports and railway stations from March 1, 2021, following a decline in new positive cases.

An order issued by Principal Secretary (Health) Samir Sinha said the earlier instruction of cancelling testing on arrival at airports and railway stations from the beginning of March has been kept in “abeyance”.

The fresh directive came after a recent spike in coronavirus infections was witnessed in some states of the country. The COVID-19 screening and testing will continue at all the six airports in the state and railway stations as per existing protocols.

Sinha also directed the district administrations and the integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) officials to ensure that contact tracing protocols are strictly followed.

Meanwhile, the state reported 30 fresh coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the tally to 2,17,484. The death toll remained at 1,091 as no new fatality due to the infection was reported in the period. Assam currently has 276 active cases, while 2,14,770 people have recovered from the disease so far. The state conducted 68,20,414 sample tests for COVID-19.

Altogether, 1,50,349 healthcare workers have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 27,743 have got the second vaccine shots. A total of 45, 458 frontline workers have received the first dose of the vaccine so far.