Delhi govt goes all out to trace UK returnees, test them

A senior official in the revenue department said around 14,000 passengers arrived at the Delhi airport since November 25 of which only around 1,500 are Delhi residents.

With no new passengers from the United Kingdom (UK) arriving in Delhi, the city’s district administrations on Wednesday went all out to track and trace those who came from the UK over the past four weeks.

A CISF security personnel during a media tour of the cargo terminal at Indira Gandhi International Airport in in New Delhi. (Bloomberg)

A senior official in the revenue department said around 14,000 passengers arrived at the Delhi airport since November 25 of which only around 1,500 are Delhi residents.

“The number of Delhi-based passengers is not more than 1,500. On Tuesday, when we were first asked to track passengers who arrived over the past two weeks, the number of Delhi-based passengers of the 7,000 total arrivals was 1,246 only. Numbers and addresses of the 1,500 passengers are still being given out by the airport authorities which is immediately being relayed to the districts,” said a senior revenue official.

HT reached out to all the 11 districts of Delhi of which five responded. As on Wednesday evening, these five districts had identified and tracked a total of 357 passengers who flew into the Capital from the UK since November 25. The south east district which covers areas such as New Friends Colony, Jor Bagh, Lajpat Nagar, Greater Kailash, Nizamuddin and Chittaranjan Park had 94 passengers who came from the UK during the said period — the highest from among the districts of which data was available.

The contacts of the person have opted for the paid quarantine facility at Aloft Hotel in Aerocity which has been designated for Covid-19 quarantine by the New Delhi district administration, the official said. For contacts of any UK returnee testing positive, the government’s free institutional quarantine facility has been created at Terapanth Bhawan in South Delhi’s Chhatarpur area.

After the Central government released a fresh standard operating procedure (SOP) for tracking, testing and isolating UK returnees, Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev issued a fresh order on Wednesday asking all stakeholders in Delhi to ensure “strict compliance” to the guidelines.

“This variant has an unusually large number of genetic changes particularly in the spike protein and therefore, requires enhanced epidemiological surveillance, enhanced containment and other measures to effectively tackle the challenge,” read the chief secretary’s order seen by HT.

The New Delhi district said it has identified 74 passengers so far of which RT-PCR results of 46 persons arrived till Wednesday evening and all tested negative.

The east district said it traced 55 UK returnees in its area of which Covid-19 results of 15 had arrived and all were negative.

The tracking and testing process of UK returnees which began from Tuesday, however, is still on and was mired with some errors or confusion on day one, officials on condition of anonymity said. In some cases, it is the alertness of the passengers which is preventing a possible spread of the new strain of the virus.

“One of the five UK returnees who tested positive at the IGI airport on Tuesday was from the east district. The person was taken to Safdarjung hospital. But there was some miscommunication and Safdarjung hospital released him prescribing home isolation. Then the alert Covid-19 passenger himself came into the government’s Arogya hospital in east district and that is how he came under the city’s Covid surveillance system. He was later shifted to the dedicated ward in Lok Nayak hospital on Tuesday night itself,” said a senior health official.

The west district said it has identified 67 passengers who flew in from December 6 and that the number will increase further as they trace back to November 25.

“It is not an easy task. Of the 67 passengers, we have been able to trace 60. The remaining 7 are all international residents with addresses of Delhi. Upon visiting the address, we find they are not there or have gone to some other state. Of the 60 people, samples of 42 passengers have been picked up and results of 17 have come. All are negative so far,” said a senior official of the west district.

Similarly, the south west district had a list of 89 passengers, but it could track and trace only 67 due to the same problem. Of the 67, RT-PCR tests of 32 were done as on Wednesday evening and all were negative.

Officials of the south west district said many passengers end up arguing with medical teams over getting RT-PCR tests done at a government facility.

“In some cases, people are saying that we got RT-PCR tests done after arrival through private laboratories in Delhi as well, so there is no need to get it done again. We explain it to them that getting an RT-PCr test done within a day or two of arrival does not necessarily mean they might not have the infection as the virus takes at least five days to be noticed in the RT-PCR test. So, we are convincing them to undergo the test. If the test has been conducted a day or two ago, that still makes sense,” said member of the surveillance team in south west district.

Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said the government is alert and responding responsibly. “We are alert and watchful at our end. People who have arrived here from the UK in the last several days are being rigorously traced and tested for slightest of Covid-like symptoms.”

“A team has been made and house-to-house tracing is being done... they (UK returnees) are being advised self-isolation too,” he said.