Back home from virus-hit Spain, 11 tourists quarantined in Amritsar
AMRITSAR: The district health department in Amritsar on Monday put 11 Punjab residents back from coronavirus-hit Spain in quarantine soon after they landed at the Shri Guru Ram Dass Jee International Airport.
The 11, including four females, have been kept in the isolation ward set up at the Swami Vivekananda drug de-addiction centre for 14 days.
Last week, the health department had decided to quarantine every tourist with a travel history to seven virus-affected countries — China, Iran, Italy, Korea, France, Germany and Spain.
The doctors, who screened the tourists at the airport, did not find any of them suffering from the virus symptoms. Later, one of them, a man, was shifted to the isolation ward of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital (GNDH) after he complained of cough and fever.
Four travellers, who landed in Amritsar on Saturday after having visited France and Germany, were also quarantined at the centre. Of the four, a 73-year-old man, who returned from Germany, showed symptoms of coronavirus and was shifted to the GNDH isolation ward on Sunday and his samples were tested at laboratory in Amritsar. He was tested as ‘negative’ for Covid-19.
‘DIRTY WARD, UNHYGIENIC FOOD’
The family members of the 11 tourists back from Spain protested against the health department for keeping their kin in isolation even though they did not show any symptoms of the virus.
The administration imposed Section 144 the Criminal Procedure Code (CRPC) to maintain law and order. Later, the health department decided to discharge 10 of them on Tuesday morning, issuing a fresh notice that those back from seven-worst coronavirus hit countries will be house quarantined.
The travellers said the isolation wards were dirty and unhygienic food was being served. “Our flight landed at Amritsar airport at 2 am on Monday. The doctors conducted our medical screening at the airport and told us that a team of doctors will again check us and will discharge us soon after the medical test. But no doctor had visited us so far,” said one of those quarantined.
AMRITSAR, UT LABS CAN CONDUCT CONFIRMATORY TESTS
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, authorised the labs at Amritsar and Chandigarh to conduct ‘confirmatory’ medical test of those suspected to be suffering from coronavirus. The doctors can now conduct the confirmatory “ORF 1d” and “Rdrp” tests of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction test at Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory, Amritsar and at the PGIMER in Chandigarh.