Assam exempts fully vaccinated travellers from COVID testing at airports, rail stations

Easing travelling to Assam, the state government on Saturday, announced that those who have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines are exempted from mandatory testing on arrival at airports or railway stations in the state. The travellers from outside Assam must only produce a valid certificate depicting the fully vaccinated status to enter the status. Assam has 29,804 active COVID cases, 4,62,307 recovered cases and 4370 deaths.

Assam exempts vaccinated travelers from mandatory testing

On Wednesday, Assam government directed all departmental heads to ascertain the vaccination status of frontline government employees before releasing their salaries from this month. The order stated that many frontline government employees have not yet taken the COVID-19 vaccine, irrespective of their registration in the COWIN portal. The order came two days after the state administration said that it is mandatory for all workers of government and private enterprises, who have taken both doses of the vaccine, to attend office.

Non-vaccination of such frontline government employees may give rise to the possibility of further spread of the virus which, in turn, may endanger the risk of common citizens, especially the vulnerable groups like infants, pregnant women and others, the order issued on Wednesday stated. "The state health department has arranged for large scale vaccination of all eligible age groups, both on and offline, and as such all departmental heads must ascertain the vaccination status of such frontline government employees before releasing the monthly salary/remuneration from the current month," it said.

Assam's 'Free Vaccination For All Campaign'

Assam has announced that it will vaccinate 3 lakh people on a daily basis. Flagging off the 'Free Vaccination For All Campaign', the state crossed its target of vaccinating three lakh people daily by reaching out to 3,19,340 eligible beneficiaries above the age of 18 on the first day of the campaign on Monday.  However, on the second day, it failed to meet the target with the inoculation of 2,41,809 people. However, it recovered on Wednesday by giving the shot to 3,31,315 beneficiaries above the age of 18 on Wednesday at 2,184 sites across the state.

Seeing a decline in cases, on Friday, Assam's COVID-19 tally rose to 4,96,481 s 2,793 more people tested positive for the infection, while 26 fresh fatalities pushed the states coronavirus death toll to 4,370, a health bulletin said. Sonipur district recorded the highest number of fresh cases at 296, followed by Golaghat (241), Jorhat (188), Bishwanath (174), and Kamrup Metro (165).