Goa CM pulls chain on special train after spike in Covid-19 cases

Sawant said that those coming by train needed to be ‘controlled’ after more than 650 people passengers alighted in Goa on Saturday and Sunday of whom 12 tested positive for Covid-19.

The New Delhi-Goa special train will be stopped from the next week onwards, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Sunday after the state saw a spike in the number of Covid-19 cases largely fueled by train passengers.

Migrants who have stranded in Goa arrive to board a special train for their native place (Madhya Pradesh), at Thivim Railway Station at Tivim on Friday. (ANI)

Sawant said that those coming by train needed to be ‘controlled’ after more than 650 people passengers alighted in Goa on Saturday and Sunday of whom 12 tested positive for Covid-19.

“From next week, the Rajdhani express will be stopped due to our request. We have to control those coming in by train,” Sawant told reporters.

The Goa government has also quarantined those persons who travelled in the same coach as those who have been found positive and announced that they will be tested again in 14 days before being allowed to proceed for home quarantine.

Six persons were confirmed positive by Sunday evening, while the confirmatory tests of an additional 10 people -- mainly train passengers -- who tested positive in preliminary rapid tests were awaited.

“I have spoken to Amit Shah and the state will have to decide on a detailed strategy. The current positive cases which have come into Goa are imported or migrated cases,” Sawant said.

He said that there will also be increased surveillance along the borders including those of truckers who were arriving in the state from red zones. Two among the second wave of cases that have come into the state are of truckers -- one from Gujarat and another from Himachal Pradesh.

Sawant, however, sought to reassure the state that all the new cases were from outside the state and were being detected because Goa -- unlike any other state -- was screening all entrants, except for truckers who were only screened for symptoms in order to avoid hold ups at the border check posts.

“The current positive cases which have come into Goa are imported or migrated cases. There is no need to fear in Goa. There is no community transmission. The issue is of people returning to Goa,” Sawant said.

He said that the 10th and 12th standard examinations in the state scheduled this week onwards will go ahead with all proper measures.

Goa’s tally of Covid-19 cases has risen to 26 of which 19 are active cases. The number is expected to go up significantly when the results of those whose reports are pending come in.