Chandigarh admnistration mulls imposing mandatory home-quarantine on incoming visitors

May also impose penalty on people violating the quarantine rules.

With rising instances of people with travel history testing positive for coronavirus, the UT administration is mulling enforcing mandatory home-quarantine for visitors coming to the city, along with penalty for violators not following the directions.

Currently, there is no restriction on people entering Chandigarh via road. Random screening at entry points is also limited. (HT File Photo)

In the last 10 days, nearly 50% of the positive cases were people with travel history or their contacts.

Expressing concern on the issue, Punjab governor and UT administrator VP Singh Badnore in the daily review meeting directed the principal secretary health to examine the proposal of making home-quarantine mandatory, instead of simply asking people to self-quarantine. This will discourage the visitors coming from outside from roaming around in different parts of the city unnecessarily, he said.

In line with the central guidelines, the current advisory issued by the administration only asks for self-quarantine, without specifying the location. Only international fliers have to mandatorily quarantine for a specific period at a specific location.

UT adviser Manoj Kumar Parida said the possibility of sending violators into institutional quarantine will be explored. “With open inter-state movement of people, there is a concern that Covid-19 cases from high incidence areas like Delhi will scatter to areas with less number of cases like Chandigarh. In the past week, an increasing number of visitors have tested positive. The aim of introducing self-home-quarantine is to confine them to their homes and restrict their movement.”

NOT ENOUGH TESTING IN UT

While Punjab has made quarantine mandatory for domestic fliers, no such mandatory condition applies on domestic fliers coming into Chandigarh. Similarly, unlike in Panchkula where all visitors from high-incidence areas like Delhi are being tested, in Chandigarh only those entering the city through cars are being screened, that too randomly.

In this regard, Badnore directed the director general of police (DGP) to ensure greater checking at border points, and to check that only authorised persons, who have registered themselves online for entry into Chandigarh, are allowed to enter.

UT has made it mandatory for visitors to register themselves on the UT’s official website before entering the city. The self-generated form has to be kept with oneself for the police to check.