Indian Railways appeals to people with serious illness to avoid train travel

Indian Railways has made a fresh appeal to people with comorbidities, pregnant women and children below age of 10 and those aged above 65 to avoid train travel if they are suffering from any pre-existing health conditions.

New Delhi: Indian Railways has made a fresh appeal to people with comorbidities, pregnant women, and children below the age of 10 and those aged above 65 to avoid train travel if they are suffering from any pre-existing health conditions.

"It has been observed that some people who are availing this service have pre-existing medical conditions which aggravate the risk they face during the COVID-19 pandemic. A few unfortunate cases of deaths related to pre-existing medical conditions while travelling have happened," the Indian Railways said in a statement.

"In order to protect vulnerable persons from COVID-19, the Ministry of Railways makes an appeal that persons with co-morbidities (for example - hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, immune deficiency conditions), pregnant women, children below the age of 10 and persons above 65 years of age may avoid travel by rail, except when it is essential," it added.

Union Railways Minister Piyush Goyal too made a similar appeal to the passengers on Twitter.  ''I appeal to people suffering from serious ailments, pregnant women & those above 65 years & below 10 years of age to travel only when necessary in Shramik Trains. Railway Parivaar is committed to ensuring the safety of all passengers,'' he tweeted.

The appeal from the Indian Railways came days after nine deaths were reported on-board Shramik Special trains, which are being operated for transporting the migrants stranded in parts of the country due to coronavirus lockdown.

At least nine passengers were reported dead on May 27 over a span of 48 hours onboard the migrant trains, with the railways stating that all of them had health conditions.
The railways have been running Shramik special Trains on a daily basis throughout the country to ensure that migrants can travel back to their homes since May 1.

It also said that the railway family is working 24X7 to ensure that rail services are provided to all citizens of the country needing to travel.

"We seek the cooperation of all citizens in this matter. In case of any distress or emergency please do not hesitate to reach out to your railway ''parivaar'' and we will help you as always (Helpline number - 139 & 138)," it said.