Passengers arriving from UK to be tested for COVID-19
India had suspended all flights to and from the U. K. from Dec. 23-31 to the spread of the mutated and more contagious variant of the coronavirus there. The suspension was later extended until January 7.
Only 30 flights will be offered per week between India and the United Kingdom when they resume from January 8 and this agreement will continue until January 23, Aviation Minister Hardep Singh Puri said on Friday.
“Airlines to ensure the availability of negative test report before allowing the passenger to board the flight,” the health ministry’s SOP stated.
He said good enough arrangements are made for passengers who will wait for their check or RT-PCR effects at the airport.
“Passengers who have tested positive will have to be isolated in an institutional isolation center in a separate unit (isolation) coordinated by the health government of the state in question,” the SOP says.
If genomic sequencing indicates the presence of the new SARS-CoV-2 variant, the patient will continue in a separate isolation unit, it is specified.
The patient will be tested on the 14th day after having tested positive and he or she will be kept in the isolation facility till his or her sample has tested negative, it added.
If any passenger testing upon arrival of passengers, passengers were seated in the same row, 3 rows in front and 3 rows would also be placed under institutional quarantine in separate quarantine centers, the SOP said.
The passengers who are found COVID-negative after the tests conducted at the airport would be advised home quarantine for 14 days and the concerned state or district administration should regularly follow up with them, it said.
“The applicable State/UTS (Union Territory) government is invited to set up desks at applicable airports to facilitate implementation of the SOP,” it added.
The presence of the new British variant of the virus has already been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.
Scheduled foreign passenger flights suspended in India since March 23 due to the pandemic.
However, airlines have been permitted to operate special international flights under the Vande Bharat Mission since May this year and under the bilateral air bubble pacts since July.
India has drawn up air bubble pacts with 24 countries, including the United Kingdom.
(With PTI inputs)
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