The Union and State governments do not appear to be on the same page on the enforcement of quarantine norms for Non-Resident Indians (NRI) who are returning home from Thursday. A section of Health Department staff believes that this could turn out to be problematic.

The Kerala government has declared that those returning from abroad would have to be on a mandatory seven-day quarantine at State-controlled facilities irrespective of their COVID-19 infection status or age. The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) released by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs on Tuesday night, however, says the returnees would have to give an undertaking that they are willing to undergo institutional quarantine for a minimum of two weeks at their own cost. They would also have to submit results of the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test to the Indian missions where they have registered themselves.

Symptomatic cases

The SOP says that symptomatic passengers would be immediately taken to a medical facility and the remaining persons to the institutional quarantine to be arranged by the State government. If they test negative after 14 days, they will be allowed to go home and undertake self-monitoring of their health for another two weeks as per protocol.

The State government, however, is planning to conduct RT-PCR test on them in seven days. Those who test positive would be hospitalised and people who test negative can go home. They can be in home quarantine only for another week. The health authorities here claim that the State’s containment protocol has to be changed against the backdrop of the Centre’s decision not to conduct medical check-up at the point of departure of the NRIs. The authorities here are planning to follow the same protocol for people returning from 10 other States classified as intense disease transmission zones and those coming back through sea ports.

“It may take at least 6 to 7 days or more for the virus to show up in the lab test. Around 30% to 40 % of people who test negative within seven days may test positive subsequently,” says a senior official, who does not wish to be quoted. Also, a small section of people may take longer time to test positive for the virus, he adds, pointing out that any lapses may lead to the situation going out of control.

In his daily press meet, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan claimed that the decision on seven-day quarantine was taken based on a suggestion by experts.