COVID-19: 725 rail passengers, arriving in Mumbai from 8 states, tested positive in a month

According to reports, as many as 725 rail passengers, arriving in Mumbai, have tested positive for COVID-19 between April 17 to May 26, 2021.

The tests are conducted at five stations of Western Railway (WR) -- Mumbai Central, Bandra Terminus, Borivali, Vasai Road and six stations on Central Railway (CR) -- CSMT, Dadar, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus, Thane, Kalyan and Panvel.

From April 17 to May 26, the Government Railway Police (GRP) conducted 2,76,359 tests, of which 725 passengers were detected with coronavirus. All underwent rapid antigen tests, whose results are available instantly.

Meanwhile, from the test conducted in April, 291 passengers tested positive and 434 passengers in May were infected with the virus.

Moreover, on May 2, 5,238 passengers had taken the test, of which 43 passengers had the virus symptoms. Besides, out of the 8,769 tests conducted on May 6, 46 passengers were found to be positive.

In the last two days, on May 25 and 26, 22 passengers were detected with COVID-19 infections.

The number of rail passengers testing positive for coronavirus after arriving in Mumbai from places of “sensitive origin” saw a rise after Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were added to the list on May 1.

Earlier, on April 18 declared six states – Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand – as places of sensitive origin in a bid to stop the “influx of other variants of coronavirus”.

Amid a rise in the coronavirus cases in the second wave, the Maharashtra government made it mandatory to carry negative reports of RT-PCR test within 48 hours of travel for all the passengers arriving from these eight states.

Moreover, as per order, even if passengers carry negative test reports, the GRP makes all undergo thermal scanning. If a passenger’s temperature is found to be high in the scanning, the person is made to undergo a rapid antigen test.

Out of the total passengers tested in Mumbai, 2.17 lakh passengers were tested in May. On May 21, 14,796 passengers were tested, which is the highest in May, followed by 14,248 on May 19, 13,349 on May 25 and 11,866 on May 22.