BMC to check passengers at railway stations for COVID-19 status

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday directed its ward officials to deploy staff at railway stations in the metropolis to check coronavirus negative documentation of passengers arriving from Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa. The Maharashtra government had, on Monday, issued a standard operating procedure making an RT-PCR negative report mandatory for domestic air travelers as well as railway and road passengers arriving from these four states.

The BMC's Tuesday circular also asked ward officers to conduct rapid antigen tests on symptomatic passengers at the railway stations and to coordinate with private laboratories for collection of samples for antigen testing. Assistant municipal commissioners have been told to get a list of daily trains and make arrangements for screening of passengers and to maintain records of the symptomatic ones.

"If the antigen test is negative, the passenger will be allowed to go home. If it is positive, then protocol of positive case will be followed," the circular read.

The Maharashtra government SOP, issued on Monday, lays down that "passengers not testing or found COVID-19 positive shall be sent to COVID Care Centre (CCC)" with the cost of further care being borne by passengers. Mumbai currently has over 2.75 lakh cases, including more than 10,700 deaths. 

(Image Credits: PTI)