Air Suvidha help sought to track foreign returnees

BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government has urged the Centre to give it access to the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal so that officials engaged in Covid management can get information on international travellers who have returned or are returning to the State. ‘Air Suvidha’ is an online system for international passengers where they need to submit a mandatory self-declaration form to declare their current health status. 

At a meeting via video conferencing with Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday, the State’s health officials requested access to the portal along with filtration facility for easy screening of home-bound foreign returnees.

Even as the State government has tightened surveillance on international travellers and decided to make RT-PCR tests mandatory for returnees from from high risk countries including South Africa, Hong Kong, Botswana, China, Australia, UK and Italy, the officials do not have any data on the number of foreign travellers who returned to the State in the last 15 days.

“There may be some Odisha origin travellers, who have returned to the country but not to the State and they are scheduled to arrive here anytime soon. We need access to the Air Suvidha portal to keep a track on them,” said a health official.  The State government clarified that flyers from ‘at risk’ countries will be subjected to RT-PCR test and even if they test negative for Covid-19, they will have to undergo a mandatory seven-day quarantine. 

Director of Medical Education and Training (DMET) Dr Ramaraman Mohanty said after completion of the seven-day quarantine period, the RT-PCR test will be conducted once again on the returnees on the eight day.  “If anyone tests positive for the infection, their treatment and contact tracing will be done as per the earlier guidelines,” he informed. 

Meanwhile, the government has decided to carry out checks not only at airports but at all entry points on the border to ensure no foreign traveller enters the State without a test. Mohanty, however, said that since there is no research data on the severity of the Omicron variant and the impact of vaccines on it, there is no reason to panic.  Meanwhile, the State reported 228 new cases and two deaths in last 24 hours taking the tally to 10,49,108 and toll to 8,411.