New Delhi: Sensing a major outbreak of the BF.7 variant of Covid virus, the Central government has asked all health authorities to put quarantine facilities in place even the mandatory RT-PCR testing of all passengers coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand have started at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi from Saturday.
"It's good to start RT-PCR testing for all passengers coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand to ascertain whether they are infected or not," Anil Goyal, senior health expert and finance secretary of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said speaking to ETV Bharat. He said that after conducting the RT-PCR testing, the passengers will be allowed to go to their destinations.
"As it takes a minimum of 24 hours for the result, the particular passenger, if found positive, will be contacted again for quarantine," said Goyal. Sources, in the Health Ministry, said that all the government hospitals and healthcare centres have been asked to put their quarantine facilities in place.
"Shifting of a Covid positive from home quarantine to a government facilitation centre depends on his or her health condition. And if any passenger is found symptomatic he or she will be put under institutional quarantine as per health protocol," sources said. The Health Ministry, according to sources, in a day or two is likely to come out with fresh guidelines for the quarantine process.
Earlier in the day, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said that on arrival, if any passenger from countries like China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand is found symptomatic or tests positive for Covid, then he or she will be put under quarantine. In fact, as per the Health Ministry guidelines issued on Thursday, all international passengers on their arrival if found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately isolated and taken to a designated medical facility as per health protocol.
Once the sample of the passengers is found positive, that should be further sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory network. According to the guidelines, a sub-section (Two per cent of the total passengers in the flight) shall undergo random post-arrival testing at the airport on arrival.
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"All travellers should self-monitor their health post arrival also shall report to their nearest health facility or call the national helpline number (1075) or state helpline number to see they have any symptoms," the Health Ministry guidelines said. On an earlier occasion, almost all the government hospitals and even several hotels had set up a separate quarantine zone.
During the previous two outbreaks of Covid, passengers were immediately taken to quarantine centres, if found positive, which were set up by government health authorities. Earlier, all States had their own quarantine regulations. Delhi had provided seven days for international passengers in government facilities at no charge, Haryana did not have any institutional quarantine except 14 days of home isolation for asymptomatic passengers, and Himachal Pradesh followed 14 days of institutional quarantine coming from RED zones.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has asked all the States and UTs to ensure the availability of oxygen and other infrastructure to handle any kind of emergency. In a letter sent to States' additional chief secretaries and principal secretaries (Health), Dr Manohar Agnani, the additional secretary in the Health Ministry, asked them to ensure PSA plants are kept fully functional and regular mock drills are conducted.
The letter also asked to ensure the availability of liquid medical oxygen (LMO), adequate inventory of oxygen cylinders, backup stocks, availability of life support equipment like ventilators and availability of oxygen controller rooms. It has also asked to ensure the onboarding of all healthcare facilities utilising oxygen to the Oxygen Demand Aggregation System (ODAS) platform for daily oxygen demand and consumption to be monitored for implementation.
