ROURKELA: With their blatant disregard of quarantine guidelines, home-bound overseas travellers are playing spoilsport in the efforts to avoid the coronavirus outbreak.
The government has made it mandatory for people returning from virus-hit countries to voluntarily disclose their travel history and undergo 14 days house quarantine irrespective of any symptoms. However, there have been reports of many travellers defying the coronavirus protocol in Rourkela putting themselves and others at risk. The violators include educated and well-off individuals.
Sources said a newlywed couple and an IT businessman of the posh Civil Township area here returned after visiting some European countries and the US respectively in the last fortnight. The young IT businessman returned 10 days ago and since then, he has been seen visiting his office on the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) campus regularly. He is untraceable now.
This is not the lone such instance. If residents in the neighbourhood are to be believed, a newly-wed couple returned from a honeymoon trip to Europe in the first week of this month to their Civil Township residence just 20 houses away from that of the US returnee.
Authorities of Rourkela Municipal Corporation said the couple has been put on home quarantine and efforts are on to trace the IT businessman. While RMC Commissioner Dibyajyoti Parida refrained from comment, Rourkela-based Additional Director of Urban Public Health Centres Dr Pushpamitra Mishra said only the district Collector is authorised to answer any queries or share information on coronavirus cases.
When contacted, Sundargarh Collector Nikhil Pawan Kalyan assured to verify from the authorities concerned if the local administration was aware of the foreign returnees and their quarantine details.
Meanwhile, in-charge Director of Rourkela Government Hospital (RGH) Dr Sudharani Pradhan on Saturday informed that as of now, only one male COVID-19 suspect, who returned from the US, is lodged in the isolation ward of RGH and his test report is awaited. Another elderly woman with similar travel history was admitted to the isolation ward on Wednesday night and later, released for home quarantine after her reports were found negative.