Passenger on Dehradun-bound train learns midway he is COVID-19 positive
About 22 people were put under quarantine after a passenger travelling in the Dehradun-bound Jan Shatabdi Express on Sunday (June 21) tested positive for coronavirus, railways officials said.
About 22 people were put under quarantine after a passenger travelling in the Dehradun-bound Jan Shatabdi Express on Sunday (June 21) tested positive for coronavirus, railways officials said.
The 48-year-old man, who hails from Shyampur in Rishikesh, boarded the train on Sunday afternoon from Ghaziabad. It was midway through the journey that he got a message that he had tested positive for COVID-19.
Panic swept through the co-passengers and the incident sparked outrage as to how a person, whose samples were collected in Noida, was allowed to board the train without getting a confirmation of his results.
Even as the man, who is an employee at a battery making firm in Noida, called the COVID-19 toll number and informed them about his status as soon as he got the message, the co-passengers questioned how he was travelling when he should have been in quarantine.
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“It is being communicated to the respective authorities of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh, as to how the person was allowed to board the train when he ought to have been in quarantine,” Station house officer Government Railway Police (GRP) Haridwar Anuj Singh was quoted by Hindustan Times as saying.
He said that the patient told that his samples were collected at his workplace, which further raises questions as to why the company and local authorities allowed him to travel interstate while he should be quarantined until the results were declared.
According to Chief medical officer Dr Saroj Naithani, the particular passenger was shifted to COVID-19 isolation center at Mela hospital, while other co-passengers in the same coach were quarantined in a government facility after the train’s arrival.
“GRP personnel informed the health department about the passenger being Covid-19 positive and immediately a team was sent to the railway station. All the 22 other passengers in the coach hailing from Haryana and Rajasthan have been quarantined at Maheshwari Sewa Sadan in Haridwar,” said Haridwar chief medical officer Dr Saroj Naithani.
