Unwilling to pay for COVID testing, 300 air passengers flee Assam airport

Authorities at the Silchar airport in Assam were left puzzled on Wednesday (April 21) when some 300 air passengers who landed by six different aircraft skipped the mandatory COVID-19 testing and fled from the testing centre, located some distance away.

The Tribune quoted Cachar district Additional Deputy Commissioner Sumit Sattawan to say that a total of 690 passengers arrived at the airport from various parts of the country aboard six aircraft, but half of them ran away over payment for the mandatory test. “All of them were supposed to undergo swab tests at the airport and the nearby Tikol Model Hospital. Around 300 people created chaos at both places, mainly over payment of Rs 500 for the tests,” said Sattawan.

To tackle the strong second wave of COVID-19, the Assam government had made it compulsory for all incoming air passengers to undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) and RT-PCR tests on arrival. Each passenger will have to shell out Rs 500 each, irrespective of the result of the test.

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A total of 189 passengers took the test, of which results of six passengers came positive. Sattawan said about 300 passengers ran away, but their details have been sought and they will be traced and will be punished as per law.

Cachar district reported 48 new cases, while Assam’s over the government tally went up by 1,665 cases on Wednesday, with a positivity rate of 2.68 per cent. The state currently has 9,048 active cases.

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The Assam government has made it mandatory to close all markets, shops and restaurants by 6 pm in the state.

A few days back, over 3,500 migrants arriving by two different trains from Surat and Mumbai, had skipped the mandatory COVID test at the Hatia (Ranchi) railway station. Similar incident was reported at Buxar railway station when a migrant train arrived from Pune.