The international passengers who arrive at the Chennai airport were allowed to travel to their home directly from the airport. They were asked to remain in home quarantine for two weeks, during which officials from Health Department would visit them regularly for check-up.
Chennai:
The stranded Indians were brought to Chennai through special flights from May 9. Airport sources said so far 254 flights had landed here carrying 34,109 passengers. All of them were kept in institutional quarantine after completing COVID-19 check-up. Most of them preferred the free stay arranged by the government in Melakotaiyur and Thandalam, while the remaining stayed in hotels.
Meanwhile, the Centre announced that international passengers would be allowed to go home if the test done 96 hours before the travel was negative. However, the officials here continued to send them to institutional quarantine as insisted by the State government. This led to arguments between passengers and airport officials.
Following this, many passengers skipped Chennai airport, and instead got down at Delhi, Vijayawada or Hyderabad enroute to avoid institutional quarantine in the past few weeks. On Monday, 134 Indians who arrived from Kuwait were allowed to go home after showing their medical certificate. Those who did not have the test results were sent home after completing COVID-19 test at the airport. Meanwhile, the domestic flight services to Kolkata operated after 57 days on Monday. Earlier, the West Bengal government had suspended services from Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai to control the virus spread in their State.
‘Corpn to focus on testing at workplaces’
People coming from other districts would not be made to remain in 14-day quarantine and could report to work directly, said Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash. The civic body has also stopped bolting tin sheets to houses of people who test positive, he added.
“Returnees from other countries and states would be tested if they are symptomatic. If not, they will be allowed to remain in home quarantine for 14 days,” he said.
As part of the new strategy based on recommendation from experts, the Corporation would focus more on testing people at workplaces, including industries, companies, offices, malls and complexes, Prakash said. He added that the Corporation was nearing 11 lakh testing mark.