COVID-19 lockdown: Meghalaya moves to facilitate returnees

A CORRESPONDENT

SHILLONG: With the State now free from COVID-19 as the only remaining active patient recovered from the virus on Monday, the government is now preparing to receive stranded students and individuals from other parts of the country.

It may be mentioned that the first train carrying residents of Meghalaya from Chennai reached Guwahati Railway Station on May 15 and on Sunday, another 155 people reached from Gujarat.

A train carrying around 1,250 residents of the State has left Bengaluru on Monday night and is reaching Guwahati Railway Station on May 20.

There are others who arrived in the State from various parts of the country by arranging their own transport. On Sunday, a group of around 30 residents reached the State in a private bus hired by them. Earlier last week, 33 students from Kota in Rajasthan arrived in a bus arranged by the institute.

The State government has stated that all those coming from other parts of the country will be categorised as coming from Red Zones and will have to undergo 28-day quarantine.

The various localities in Shillong and also villages in other parts of the State are gearing up to receive the returnees.

With the government expressing its inability to give institutional quarantine to all the returnees, the localities/villages have set up their own places of quarantine in schools for community centers. The traditional heads have cited the recent incident wherein around 400 persons had broken home quarantine.

Former, legislator HS Shylla said that home quarantine will not help at all.

"The State government was focusing more on the issue of stigmatization and therefore is suggesting home quarantine when it should rather focus on containment," Shylla said.

He also said that fearing stigmatization, the government was also not revealing the identity of COVID-19 patients. Shylla said that in indigenous communities the issue of stigmatization does not arise.