India flights: 7-day quarantine for all international arrivals from today

With India’s revised guidelines for those arriving at its airports from abroad coming into force from Tuesday (January 11), all incoming passengers will have to be home quarantined for seven days.

Thermal screening would be carried out for all passengers by health officials at airports. Those found symptomatic during screening will be isolated immediately and taken to a medical facility. Travellers from 20 countries (South Africa, Brazil, China, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Botswana, Ghana, Mauritius, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Israel, Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Zambia) will have to follow additional measures, according to the government.

All travellers (including two per cent who will undergo post-arrival random testing at the airport) will have to undergo home quarantine for seven days. On the eighth day, they will have to do an RT-PCR test, which will have to be uploaded on to the Air Suvidha portal; if its negative, they will have to self-monitor their health for another seven days. Those who test positive will be kept at isolation facilities.

K Harikrishnan Namboothiri, chief executive, Norka Roots, the Kerala government agency that addresses problems relating to NRIs, told a newspaper that restrictions and delays are causing problems for those returning home.

Kerala-based public health activist Dr NM Arun said health experts described the testing and quarantine rules for international passengers as illogical.

“The rules targeting travellers do not serve any purpose other than customary,” he said. “It is wrong to assume that only travellers carry the virus. It is spreading locally and most of them go undetected.”

Those who are home quarantined should be allowed to go out and do their work, said Arun. Practical measures need to be adopted for those returning to India for work.

In Mumbai, passengers testing positive will be admitted to the Seven Hills Hospital, or if they prefer private ones, will be sent to Bombay Hospital or Breach Candy Hospital.