Striving to restrain the huge COVID-19 wave, Maharashtra on Sunday declared six states, including the national capital and the NCR region, as the places of “sensitive origin” in an attempt to stop the “influx of other variants of coronavirus” from other locations.
Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte has signed an order declaring that states of Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Delhi and NCR region, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand as the places of “sensitive origin”.
According to the order, passengers travelling to Maharashtra from the six states declared as the places of sensitive origin will need an RT-PCR negative test within 48 hours of their train travel.
This decision has been taken to control the transmission of coronavirus in Maharashtra and to “stop the influx of other COVID-19 virus variants into the state of Maharashtra from other locations,” it said.
“These places will be considered the places of sensitive origin from the date of this order till the time it is retracted or till COVID-19 stays notified as a disaster,” it stated.
Delhi on Sunday reported the biggest hike in its daily COVID-19 tally with 25,462 fresh cases, while the positivity rate shot up to 29.74 per cent.
As per the state health department, Maharashtra, which is the worst-hit state in terms of the number of cases and deaths, on Sunday reported the highest number of 68,631 fresh infections while 503 patients died.
With this, the total caseload in Maharashtra mounted to 38,39,338 while the deaths reached 60,473.
A standing operating procedure (SOP) is also issued by the Maharashtra government for passengers from the six states of sensitive origin.
In the SOP for passengers travelling in long-distance trains from these six places, the government said the Railways shall share data of the trains that are scheduled to be running between these origins and stations in Maharashtra with the local disaster management authorities.
Data of passengers should be shared with local disaster management authority each day, four hours before the departure from the origin of trains, it said.
People from these places will have to reserve tickets for travelling to Maharashtra. Railways should assure that trains from the places of sensitive origin should come to outer platforms where it is easier to conduct thermal screening (of passengers), the order said.
Passengers not having the RTPCR negative report will have to undergo a rapid antigen test at the station, it added.
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