The Ministry of Home Affairs has on Wednesday allowed the interstate travel of migrant workers, tourists, students etc. stranded at various places in the country amidst the lockdown enforced due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The MHA in its notification said that all States/ UTS should designate nodal authorities and develop standard protocols for receiving and sending such stranded persons. "The nodal authorities shall also register the stranded persons within their States/UTS," the notification read.
The MHA further said that in case a group of stranded persons wish to move between one State/UT and another State/ UT, the sending and receiving States may consult each other and mutually agree to the movement by road.
For the transport, the Ministry said that buses shall be used. The buses will be sanitized and shall follow safe social distancing norms in seating. The stranded persons who wish to travel would be screened and those found asymptomatic would be allowed to proceed, they said.
When these stranded labourers, students and tourists reach their destination, they would be accessed by local authorities and kept in home quarantine and if required in institutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, with 1813 new cases and 71 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in India rose to 31,787 (including 22982 active cases, 1008 deaths, 7797 cured/discharged and 1 migrated), said Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
