E-Paper
Air passengers coming to Assam will be quarantined for 14-days
Government officials coming on duty would also be exempted from quarantine, but their departments will have to arrange for isolated lodgings during their stay and they won’t be allowed to roam around freely.
The Assam government will enforce mandatory facility and home quarantine for 14 days for passengers arriving by air from Monday.
Nearly 4,000 passengers (around 2,000 of them to Assam and the rest to neighbouring states) are expected to arrive daily at Guwahati’s Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport from Monday.
“As of now we expect 20 or 32 flights to operate on May 25. But since we don’t have any confirmation of that yet, we are constrained on what to expect and plan accordingly. It will take at least 10 minutes to screen one person and it might take up to 24 hours to check 1,500 people. So people coming back should expect some difficulty on the first day,” said Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Pilots, crew and technicians associated with operating flights would be exempted from quarantine. Same would be the case of persons who arrive and depart from Guwahati the same day provided they submit a declaration about it. If found violating the declaration, criminal proceedings would be initiated.
Government officials coming on duty would also be exempted from quarantine, but their departments will have to arrange for isolated lodgings during their stay and they won’t be allowed to roam around freely.
Passengers whose parents are in hospital or have deaths in their immediate family will be exempted from facility quarantine, but they will have to undergo home quarantine for 14 days.
Senior citizens above 75 years, children below 10 years and their family members and handicapped persons will also be exempted from facility quarantine, but will need to undergo home quarantine.
Passengers who have come from abroad and have already undergone 14 days facility quarantine in Delhi, Mumbai or any other city will also be exempted from facility quarantine.
If someone has done RT-PCR test in the past 72 hours prior to their flight and has negative test results, they don’t need to spend time in facility quarantine and will undergo only home quarantine.
Passengers have the option of staying in paid quarantine in 3 five star hotels in Guwahati. Others will be sent to hotels and quarantine facilities where the government will be taking care of their needs. Preference for hotel beds will be given to senior citizens and women.
“Passengers will have to undergo 7 days facility quarantine and 7 days of home quarantine. But if test results come negative, some of them might be allowed to leave the facility quarantine early and spend the rest of the 14 days in home quarantine,” said Sarma.
“Things will get better in the next few days. There might be some discomfort in the first 2-3 days therefore I request people to delay their journey if possible. We will enforce ruthless quarantine and there will be no compromise on protecting the health of people in Assam for the sake of those who are coming back,” he added.
Sarma said that since trains and flights have resumed, the state government might close the road border with West Bengal from the start of next month allowing only goods carriers and persons travelling for medical emergencies to enter.
Assam has recorded 359 Covid-19 cases till Sunday evening. Over 271 of those cases are of people who have returned to the state by roads and railways since the ban on inter-state movement was lifted on May 4.
