Gurgaon: The district health department has put 28 residents, who tested
Covid-19 negative at the IGI Airport after returning from the
UK, under
home isolation. They will be tested again after seven days.
If they turn positive, they will be shifted to a separate quarantine facility and their contacts will be tested. All positive samples will be sent to the designated lab for genomic sequencing.
Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurgaon, said that a separate quarantine facility for Covid positive passengers is already in place. “The UK returnees are in home isolation now. If they turn positive, they can be shifted immediately to the quarantine facility, which has 40 rooms,” he said, adding that these residents are already in contact with the district surveillance officers.
Elaborating more on the matter, the CMO said, “We have received the list of passengers from the state government and we have shared the list with the urban public health centres. Our teams have advised them to self-monitor their health and if they notice any symptoms such as fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, they will have to inform the health department.”
All positive samples from Haryana and other north Indian states are being sent for genomic sequencing at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology located in Sukhdev Vihar, New Delhi. “We will also be collecting data regarding their recent contacts if they test positive. Our teams are in touch with all passengers,” he added.
Currently, the Gurgaon health department has received passengers only from the UK. It has not received any passengers from other high-risk countries. The residents have been asked to contact 1950, the district helpline, in case anyone develops symptoms.
The health department is following the recent SOPs issued by the Union ministry of health and family welfare, which mandates all such passengers to undergo a compulsory RT-PCR test at the airport. Those who test positive will be admitted to Covid care centres while others will have to undergo home quarantine for seven days, following which the health department will conduct an RT-PCR test again.
The health department and the district administration have been on alert after a recent surge in cases in the state as well as other parts of the country. The presence of the new UK variant has already been reported by several countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore.