THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Visiting the state from West Asia, the UK and Europe from February 22 midnight will be more cumbersome as the airports will follow stringent guidelines to screen passengers for new strains of Covid-19. Apart from carrying a Covid-19 negative certificate, the passengers have to undergo molecular tests on arrival. According to health department officials, it would be a challenge as it is beyond the state’s capacity to carry out such a large number of sample testing.
“The airport in Thiruvananthapuram gets around 1,000 passengers from West Asia on a peak day. The numbers would be more than double in Kochi airport. It is a bit of a challenge to conduct so many tests,” said an officer. According to him, the samples would be outsourced to private laboratories to speed up the testing process. However, the passengers will have to pay for the PCR test as per the guidelines.
The health department managed to conduct just under 24,000 RT-PCR tests in 24 hours ending on Thursday. Only 28 private labs carry out RT-PCR test in the state.The guidelines say adequate arrangements have to be made at the airports for passengers waiting for their confirmatory molecular test as well as test results duly following effective isolation in conjunction with the airport authorities.
However, Trivandrum International Airport director C V Ravindran said passengers would be allowed to go after collecting the samples. Since the guidelines were issued by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on February 17, the government officials, airports and airline companies have been in discussion to firm up the procedures. A meeting will be held on Friday to chalk out an action plan.
The new restrictions would have an impact on the travel plans of people working in the West Asia. Ganesh Vaderi, president of IATA Agents Association of India, said the new restrictions will further restrict the number of travellers. “There has been a marked reduction in the number of passengers ever since Saudi Arabia banned entry of passengers from India and some other countries.
We still have passengers from the UAE. However, the passengers would be worried over the restrictions on the return trip as well,” he said.The airports in the state have been conducting PCR/molecular test on returnees from the UK since the end of December following a global alert on a new strain. So far, 86 returnees have tested positive for Covid-19 including the two reported on Thursday. Among the positive cases, 10 contracted the new Covid strain. The results of 71 returnees turned out to be negative for the new strain.
The tests were conducted at Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) Labs, a consortium of 10 labs which included National Institute of Virology, Pune. The health department has initiated a genome surveillance to trace and contain the highly contagious form of the virus with the support of CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Interactive Biology in Delhi. Incidentally, the new guidelines came on the day the chief minister said the concerns of mutant virus spread in the state was exaggerated.
24,000 RT-PCR tests on Thursday
The health department managed to conduct just under 24,000 RT-PCR tests in 24 hours ending on Thursday. Only 28 private labs carry out RT-PCR test in the state