ALAPPUZHA: Even as the state government has made Covid-negative certificate mandatory for expatriates returning on flights which has kicked up a controversy, experts and passengers say giving the travellers personal protective equipment (PPE) kits is safer to prevent infection. On June 14, Air Arabia transported 162 passengers on a chartered flight from Sharjah and all of them wore PPE kits. The inability to conduct rapid antibody or RT-PCR test in Gulf countries is a hindrance to thousands of expatriates who want to reach the state as early as possible. Binoy E who works in Oman said the sultanate is checking only people who have symptoms of the disease.
“There’s no direction to conduct Covid checking as per the wishes of individuals. It is being carried out only as per the directive of registered medical practitioners recognised by the sultanate. Making wearing of PPE kits during travel mandatory is the option to rescue people from Gulf countries,” he said. Dr Kurian Oommen, national coordinator of Doctors for Social Justice, an organisation of doctors, said the PPE kit is the effective method to prevent the pandemic spread.
“The state and Central governments should allow people to travel wearing PPE kits. Expats in many West Asian countries who want to come back face difficulties because of lack of facilities there to undergo the Covid tests. Some countries charge a huge amount for the tests. In this scenario, the government should allow people to travel wearing PPE kits which is a safe method for preventing the infection,” he said.
Kit costs G700-1,000
The use of PPE kits is also less expensive than the tests. A PPE kit costs around 35-50 UAE dirhams, which amounts to `700-`1,000. The passengers who travelled on the Air Arabia flight on June 14 endorse the kit, despite some discomfort. Reghukumar K, one of passengers, said the heat inside the PPE kit is discomforting, but in the AC cabin, it is not a big issue. “As many as 162 of us wore the kits for more than eight hours that day, but it did not create any major discomfort. Our company, Elite Group, had supplied the kits,” Reghukumar said.
The state government has suggested rapid antibody and TrueNat tests as alternatives to the RT-PCR test for getting Covid-negative certificates, but some of the Gulf countries have not approved these tests. They accept only RT-PCR tests, but they lack facilities to carry out this test on a wider scale. Hence, the state government’s new rule for returning expats from Saturday will lead to the cancellation of a large number of scheduled flights in the coming days.