Covid-19: Concern in Guwahati locality after arrival of 5 foreigners

Arrival of five foreign nationals at a locality in Assam’ Guwahati raised concerns among residents on Sunday night over fears of contracting coronavirus.

The foreigners - three French, one Italian and one Spanish - had entered Assam from Manipur and had checked into a guest house in the Beltola area of the city.

As soon as local residents came to know about it, they informed the Hatigaon police station. The police rushed a team to the spot and took them to the station and conducted their health check-up.

Additional DGP (Law and Order) Assam Police, GP Singh, took to Twitter to inform that the foreign nationals reached Guwahati from Manipur and are on their way to Delhi.

Urging the public not to panic, he added that the foreigners had completed their quarantine period in Manipur and they have approval from the external affairs ministry to travel to Delhi via Assam.

“3 French, 1 Italian, 1 Spanish nationals have reached Guwahati, Assam from Manipur enroute Delhi. They have approval of ministry of external affairs to travel from Manipur to Delhi via Siliguri (West Bengal). They have completed their quarantine in Manipur. There’s no need to panic,” he tweeted.

According to reports, the foreign tourists had entered India via the Moreh border with Myanmar in Manipur prior to start of the 21-day lockdown.

Sources said that Assam Police will take the foreigners by road to the Srirampur border with West Bengal and will hand them over to authorities of the neighbouring state.

The total number of Covid-19 infected people reached 9,152 in India on Monday after 620 fresh cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The health ministry said that 35 more people died of the disease in the last 24 hours.