In Tamil Nadu, institutional quarantine must for flyers from abroad

CHENNAI: Passengers who arrive by Vande Bharat flights from abroad at Chennai airport will continue to undergo seven-day institutional quarantine as the state government has not implemented the new standard operating procedure (SOP) put out by the Union ministry of health that allows home quarantine for thosewith a Covid-19 negative certificate. The new SOP is valid from August 8.
The state government says it will examine the SOP and will decide on it later.
However, several passengers who did not know that the state government is not following the new SOP by the Centre arespending money to get Covid-19 negative tests abroad to avoid institutional quarantine.
This absence of uniformity in policy is impacting especially those who are returning after losing their jobs from the Middle East. The tests are expensive abroad and people are forced to spend their savings for a certificate.
"Peoplespend around$200 for Covid-19 test and wait for four days to get the results. When they land here and learn that the report is of no of use, they get disappointed,” said an official.
A senior bureaucrat said that they would examine the advisory from the Centre and deliberate on it and arrive at a decision. Based on this, a report will be submitted to the chief secretary K Shanmugam. Following this, TN government would take the final call.
“There is no change in the quarantine rules yet. Though passengers have certificates, a swab test is taken and they are taken to a hotel or a government facility. Only one or two international flights arrive now every day,” said an airport official, noting that the state health officials, who screen international passengers, continue to send them into institutional quarantine.
However, the new SOP issued by the union government will be useful when scheduled international flights begin, said the airport official. In that case, there will be more flights per day and finding accommodation for all the passengers who arrive willbedifficult.Oneflightcan bring at least 250 to 300 passengers.
Though the second test is supposedtobetaken after seven days, in some cases there is a delay because there may be too many passengers. However, a 23-year-old medical student who arrived from Kazakhstan was lucky as she was sent to her hometown for institutional quarantine. “My swab sample was taken and I was in a quarantine centre in Chennai for two days. After that they sent me to Perunthurai for a week. The second sample was taken on the seventh day there. After the second sample returned negative, I was asked to be in home quarantine."