The confusion started after doubts were raised regarding those passengers who won't be in the state for more than two days, or even a couple of hours
The Punjab government on May 25 changed its guidelines for the district administrations handling the arrival of passengers at least four times in 24 hours, creating confusion for authorities on the ground, The Indian Express has reported.
While Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh had said those arriving in the state would have to be in home or institutional quarantine for 14 days, four separate guidelines were released by the state administration, with nobody within the state bureaucracy clear about which set of Standard Operating Procedure (SOPs) were to be followed.
"In less than 24 hours, we have had four sets of guidelines and what finally we adopt on the ground will be after solving a jigsaw puzzle," a government official told the newspaper.
The confusion started after doubts were raised regarding those passengers who won't be in the state for more than two days, or even a couple of hours. The first set of guidelines then stated that all those belonging to Punjab and landing at any of the six airports in the state would be tested. Those who test positive would be sent to institutional quarantine.
However, according to the newspaper, that still did not answer the question of what should be done with those passengers who are not bonafide residents of the state.
"Not that the residents of the other states, who land in Punjab, do not pose a COVID threat. But we do not know what to do with them," an official in one of the districts said.
The deputy commissioners were then asked to test randomly, but before the DCs could issue orders, Principal Secretary, Health, Anurag Aggarwal, issued revised guidelines stating that all passengers entering Punjab and found asymptomatic or testing negative will have to remain under home quarantine for 14 days.
For those classified as inter-state travellers who need to travel out of Punjab, such as a Member of Parliament, an MLA, journalists, doctors, salespersons, among others, would not need quarantine. After they sign an undertaking saying they will self-monitor their health, DCs and Sub-Divisional Magistrates can issue them passes.
But even after these set of guidelines were released, Special Secretary Health, Isha Kalia, said in an order that only those who are symptomatic in domestic arrivals would be tested while those who are asymptomatic would be sampled randomly.
This resulted in the authorities testing all domestic arrivals in the morning and switching to testing randomly after the revised guidelines.
"Each sampling requires at least 10 minutes considering changing gloves, masks, taking samples and labelling boxes. The passengers were getting restless," a district official told the newspaper.
