Thousands of stranded Meghalaya citizens outside the Northeast will start arriving from May 15 onwards via Guwahati, and all will be treated as those coming from “red zones”.

Deputy chief minister Prestone Tynsong on Wednesday said a train from Chennai, carrying 1,000 citizens will be leaving tonight and will arrive on May 15 at the Guwahati railway station.

The state government has arranged transportation to ferry these citizens from the railway station to the state.

On May 15, another train with 225 citizens will leave from Gujarat and will reach Guwahati on May 17.

Tynsong said a train with around 1,500 citizens will depart from Bangalore on May 16 and will be arriving in Guwahati on May 18.

Around 8,000 citizens from various parts of the country, excluding the Northeast, had registered themselves to come back to Meghalaya.

Tynsong said the government will treat all those citizens who have come from outside the Northeast as people who have arrived from “red-zone” areas.

The deputy chief ministersaid this would enable the government to take extra precautions for those who have come from outside the region till their quarantine period is completed.

Moreover, there are already 198 citizens who have come on their own initiative from different parts of the country, excluding the Northeast.

These include 116 from Bengal, 33 (Rajasthan), 13 (Madhya Pradesh), 11 (Karnataka), eight (Bihar), seven (Uttar Pradesh) and five each from Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu.

Additionally, there are 3,772 citizens who were stranded in different states of the Northeast who have returned home.

One active case

Meghalaya now has only one active COVID-19 case while there are 11 recoveries and one death.

Tynsong said till date, 2,539 samples were sent for testing, out of which, 2,526 have tested negative.

The first Covid-19 case was detected on April 13, but the patient passed away two days later.

He said 11 other positive cases have fully recovered while one case was still positive.