After coming in close contact with a mechanical engineer, who died of COVID-19 on June 17, several Northern Railway employees of the carriage and wagon department have tested positive for the virus.
This prompted the Northern Railway authorities to start random throat swab testing of employees to further ensure their safety.
The testing became even more crucial when five more employees, who were working in the carriage and wagon department of Ferozepur Railway Station tested positive after swab testing.
Most of these affected employees had directly come in contact with employees of Ludhiana and Amritsar during their working hours.
Moreover, local railway authorities in Ludhiana have started providing PPE kits to the ticket checking staff, who are deputed to check passengers. Along with that, the authorities have also taken several precautionbary measures for workers involved in the track maintenance.
For this purpose, they will be relying on the local health department officials who will help conduct regular medical screening of all these workers as they are stationed in different parts of the district.
As only a limited number of trains are passing through the city station, excessive maintenance work is not required. Therefore, the Railway authorities have asked the cleanliness department officials to ensure that only 50 per cent of the employees are involved in maintenance work at any given point of time.
Furthermore, several preventive measures have been taken by the division railway manager of Ferozepur, such as providing a helpline number and arranging beds for all the COVID patients at the regional hospital at Ferozepur.
