Thousands of people have come to Howrah station on trains from Delhi since partial resumption of passenger train services.

The 20-coach train that is travelling between Howrah and New Delhi can carry 1,028 passengers.

The passengers are undergoing a two-layer check for Covid-19 symptoms — a temperature check at railway stations and a swab test at government health centres or hospitals — followed by a 14-day quarantine at home or a government shelter.

The Telegraph spoke to officials in the state government and the railways and several passengers to figure out the drill.

Thermal check

All the passengers are being screened for body temperature with a thermal gun twice — in New Delhi and Howrah.

“Till Friday, we did not find anybody from Delhi to be symptomatic. If someone is found running a temperature or other symptoms, he or she will be taken for further tests,” said an official of the health department of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

Swab test

After the thermal screening at Howrah, the passengers who live in Calcutta and fringe areas are being taken to Netaji Indoor Stadium, where a health team of the CMC is screening them for Covid-19 symptoms and advising quarantine as necessary.

People headed for far-off districts are being ferried on state buses to their destinations.

Government health workers have a database of all passengers arriving on trains. 'We are trying to collect swab samples of everyone within 48 hours of arrival,' said a health official.

Some of the buses ferrying passengers are stopping at a centre for collection of swab samples.

A passenger on the train that came on Thursday, a 39-year-old goldsmith, was put on a bus headed to Hooghly. The bus stopped at a medical camp on Delhi Road where all occupants underwent swab tests and another round of medical examination.

A certificate the man got from the camp says he “was found to be afebrile (non-feverish) at the time of examination”.

“Incumbent is advised home quarantine for 14 days,” said the certificate.

The passengers who are reaching their destinations without a halt are being contacted by local health workers and volunteers who are arranging their swab test schedule at a nearby hospital or health centre.

Keeping a check

Officials in the health department said all people arriving on trains were being monitored but all were not being asked to spend the 14-day quarantine at government institutions.

“The Centre has said that even Covid-19 patients who have mild symptoms or are pre-symptomatic can stay in home isolation. Under such a situation, there is no point in keeping all passengers in institutional quarantine. People who can stay in isolation at their homes may well do so,” said an official.

A 27-year-old passenger, who worked at a textile unit in Delhi, is spending quarantine at his village home in Murshidabad. A local health volunteer visited him to check whether he was following the “quarantine protocol”.