the goan I network
MARGAO
It was around 11 am on Thursday. The Delhi-Trivandrum Rajdhani Express was scheduled to chug along at the Margao railway station at 1 pm.
While around 30 passengers were made to sit outside the station after subjecting them to thermal screening, before they were allowed to board the Delhi-Trivandrum train, a health team was busy putting arrangements in place around the same time on the railway platform near the food court.
Reason: With the railways resuming train services and the state administration making Covid tests mandatory for all incoming passengers, health officials were on the job to put in place a makeshift testing centre.
It took around half an hour to test the 15 passengers, but they had to wait at the station for another half an hour before being transported by a KTC bus to the Multipurpose hall, near the Ravindra bhavan.
That a team of doctors led by Deputy Health Director Dr Ira Almeida personally descended on the railway station gave enough indications that the health services were leaving nothing to chance. The health staff came out of the hospitals for the first time to conduct Covid tests.
That only 16 passengers were scheduled to disembark allowed the health team to try out Covid testing right at the railway station instead of ferrying all of them to the hospital.
A lone Covid kiosk manned by doctors and paramedics carried out the testing on the passengers. Swabs were taken and secured them in a box.
“The initiative was successful. But we should not forget that we tested only a few passengers. The real test will come when 700 to 1000 passengers descend on the railway station at one time in the days ahead,” Dr Ira said.
The health officials are ready to constitute around ten such teams to test passengers at the platform, but they are equally aware of the logistics that would be required to be put in place by the Konkan railway and the police.
“Certain issues came to the fore after Thursday’s testing of the passengers at the railway platform. It was okay to test 15 passengers, but the authorities will have to put in place logistics for a pandal, seating arrangements, sanitized washrooms for 700 or more,” she added.
Dr Ira said that with the Delhi-Margao train scheduled to arrive at the Margao railway station on Saturday noon, the authorities will take a call whether to continue the testing arrangement at the station. “The matter will be discussed with the district authorities and the police to arrive at a decision,” she added.
