Untested, 2,000 flyers enter Coimbatore district

COIMBATORE: The decision of the public health department to stop testing incoming passengers at the city airport since Monday could prove costly in the war against Covid-19 as nearly 2,000 passengers have entered the district through the airport from various cities in the country.
Even as the state government continues to emphasize that tightening district borders is essential to stop super spreaders and potential carriers from entering and moving around undetected, the health department has decided to stop testing passengers landing in the city from Chennai, Bengaluru, New Delhi and Hyderabad. At least three of these cities are major Covid-19 hotspots. The airport receives eight flights a day, carrying 450 to 500 passengers in total.
Deputy director of public health, Dr G Ramesh Kumar, confirmed that they have stopped testing domestic passengers because the positivity rate was low. Their data shows that from May 26 to July 5, only 125 people tested positive at the airport, of which 48 were from Coimbatore. “When we run 200-300 samples, only one or two positive cases were emerging,” he said.
But only last week, two people working at the airport, including a customs staff and a CISF personnel, tested positive. Besides not testing passengers, officials are not insisting on institutional quarantine either for a few days, to check if they develop symptoms.
A health department official admitted that they don’t have a system to follow up and even check if passengers are home quarantining themselves effectively. “Though their addresses are noted down, we don’t have the staff to stick quarantine stickers outside all their houses and keep calling on them to check if they are following quarantine rules,” said the official.
However, sources said this is just a measure to reduce the number of samples being tested, because the government lacks facilities to process more samples than this. CMCH can run 1,500 samples a day and ESI Hospital can run 250-odd samples a day, making it 1750 samples a day. Dr Ramesh on Friday told TOI that they collect only 2,000 samples a day, which is 33% less than the 3,000 odd samples they were collecting daily until Tuesday. This dip comes in the face of the district recording more than 50 new cases a day, and recording 98 cases on Thursday.
Epidemiologists say that thermal screening of passenger temperatures, especially those from Covid-19 hotspots, is not enough. “A simple paracetamol is enough to pass through the thermal scanner. Passengers from hotspots like Chennai, New Delhi and Bengaluru should be tested, because they could be asymptomatic but spread the virus extensively,” said former director of public health Dr P Kulandiaswamy. “This is not an ideal time to reduce testing. If the circumstances are difficult, then we hope officials are practising extremely accurate targeted testing,” he added.