GUWAHATI: An absconding vehicle-lifter in Assam tested positive for COVID-19 and he, perhaps, passed the virus on to others.
Faridul Islam, against whom several cases of vehicle lifting are registered in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, had arrived in Assam’s Silchar from Ajmer in Rajasthan by a bus on Wednesday morning. Hours later, he was found to be COVID-19 positive.
The middle-aged man hails from Northern Assam’s Dhekiajuli in Sonitpur district but instead of going there, he travelled to Silchar in Southern Assam, apparently to avoid arrest.
Assam’s Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the Silchar incident was a matter of grave concern for the government. He said after the local administration in Ajmer granted permission for travel, 42 people, including eight children, had travelled to Assam by the bus.
“When we issue permits for the movement of a vehicle, we check its capacity and allow 50% of passengers. So, after the bus reached Silchar on Wednesday morning, the sample of one passenger by the name of Faridul Islam was collected by health officials out of suspicion. The results confirmed that he was positive for COVID-19,” Sarma said.
He said the incident made the authorities to send all the other passengers of the bus to quarantine facilities and turn several localities of the town in Barak Valley into containment zones. He said samples of Islam’s co-passengers would be collected for lab tests.
“Cases are registered in various police stations against Faridul Islam who was absconding. We have asked the police to probe when and how he went to Ajmer,” the Minister said.
He added: “The incident has made a strong case for every vehicle entering Assam to be checked more from now on. It has confirmed that there could be an infection from people coming from the Red Zones. The government has decided that there will be a compulsory institutional quarantine of all people coming from the Red Zones even if they are asymptomatic.”
Meanwhile, the police sent Islam’s wife and two children to a quarantine facility. A police officer said Islam was a notorious vehicle lifter who was wanted by the police at many places. He underwent jail terms on several occasions.