Punjab stops looking for 2,500 NRIs who are yet to be traced

Sanjeev Verma | TNN | Apr 5, 2020, 12:01 IST

Volunteers spray disinfectant on police personnel to contain the spread of coronavirus during the nationwide lockdown in Amritsar on Friday. (Photo: PTI)

Volunteers spray disinfectant on police personnel to contain the spread of coronavirus during the nationwide l...Read More

CHANDIGARH: After tracking and putting into quarantine around 40,000 NRIs who entered Punjab since January, the Punjab government has stopped searching for the remaining around 2,500 who are still untraced as it believes they are not a threat anymore.
The government authorities say that the untraced NRIs entered the state around two months back and after to curfew was imposed in the state, their 14-day quarantine period is over. Had these untraced NRIs developed any health complications, they would have approached the health facilities by now. The state government gathered information of 55,669 NRIs who entered Punjab in the last three months. Rahul Tewari, head of the Punjab state control room for Covid-19 cases, said that as around 12,000 travelled back to their respective countries before international flights were stopped, effectively around 42,000 NRIs were to be tracked by the government.
“Around 2,500 NRIs are untraceable because either their passport numbers are incorrect or they were not found at their addresses,” said Tewari. “At this stage, we have stopped tracing these around 2,500 NRIs because their quarantine period is otherwise complete because of the curfew period.”