Several COVID-19 Patients Found Aboard Trains, Confirms Indian Railway Ministry

New Delhi, March 21, 2020:

Amid the worldwide panic over the outbreak of the deadly coronavirus or COVID-19, the Indian Railways has confirmed that several positive cases have been found aboard trains. Thus, the Ministry advised, the people should postpone their planned journeys.

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Informing this via Twitter through its official handle, the Ministry wrote, "Railways has found some cases of COVID-19 infected passengers in trains which makes train travel risky. Avoid train travel as you may also get infected if your co-passenger has Coronavirus. Postpone all journeys and keep yourself and your loved ones safe."

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This tweet has been sent out one day ahead of the nationwide janata (or public) curfew that was announced by the PM, Narendra Modi, on Thursday.

Calling for the people’s curfew, that is, a curfew that will imposed by the people on Sunday, March 22, Modi urged all the people not connected to essential services to stay within their homes from 7 AM to 9 PM on Sunday next. “This will prepare us for the challenges ahead”, Modi said. The PM further urged the people to spread the information about the public curfew, which he has termed as a “test” for the nation, to check how prepared we are to deal with the contagion. The PM also advised against “panic buying” and told people not to hoard items, adding that milk, edibles, medicines will be available.

Meanwhile, the Indian Railways have cancelled all the passenger trains on Sunday, keeping in view the ‘Janata Curfew’ declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

All the passenger trains have been cancelled from 00:00 hours on March 22, i.e. Sunday. The suburban services in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai and Secunderabad will also be reduced to minimal levels.

The Ministry of Railways said that the decision has been taken in view of the fact that the demand for rail travel will be greatly reduced during the Janta Curfew.

As per the Indian Railways, all passenger trains originating between midnight of March 21/22 to 2200 hours of March 22 shall not run. However, the passenger train services already on run at 0700 hours on the day will be allowed to run to the destinations.

The Railways department has also directed all the Divisions of the country to ensure that the trains, which are empty could be short terminated, if required.

It may be mentioned here that India recorded a total of 271 positive cases of novel coronavirus on Saturday, from 250 cases a day earlier.

India has recorded four deaths till now (a fifth person died from the virus in Jaipur, however, he was a tourist from Italy). Following the coronavirus state, a nation-wide call for a ‘Janata Curfew’ has been announced from 7 AM to 9 PM on March 22 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Globally, Italy reported a dramatic surge in COVID-19 deaths at 627 on Friday, taking the total number of casualties to 11,397. The number of infected people also topped to 275,000.

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