Amid the coronavirus spread, health staff from Rajganj block hospital have been deployed at the India-Bangladesh border to screen people for coronavirus infection, who are crossing the border.
"We are here at the border to screen the people, coming from Bangladesh and going from India. No positive case of coronavirus has been reported so far," Kanchan Mandal, a medical staff, said.
Meanwhile, Bangladeshi and Indian nationals made a beeline to the Integrated Check-Post (ICP) to return their respective homes fearing any further restrictions might halt their travel and prevent them from returning to their respective homeland.
Suprakash Roy, a resident of West Bengal, said: "I visited Bangladesh for vacation. I cut short my visit in view of COVID-19 spread to return. I thought if the border is closed, it will be a problem for me."
The home ministry had earlier in a tweet said :"All types of passenger movements through all immigration Land Check Posts located at India's borders with Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar suspended w.e.f. 0000hrs, Mar15, 2020 & at India-Pakistan border w.e.f. 0000hrs, Mar16, 2020."
Exempted check posts include those in Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal. Among them are nine check posts in West Bengal of which seven are on the India-Bangladesh border and one each on the India-Nepal and India-Bhutan borders. The Government of India on March 11 issued an additional travel advisory imposing travel restrictions on persons arriving inIndia from coronavirus-affected countries. The countries are Italy, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, Iran, Malaysia, France, Spain and Germany.