7 days home quarantine for all inbound travellers
ASYMPTOMATIC INDIVIDUALS ARRIVING IN THE CITY DID NOT NEED TO GO UNDER QUARANTINE EARLIER
nNEWDELHI: The Delhi government on Wednesday issued an order mandating seven days’ home isolation for all asymptomatic individuals arriving in the city on flights and trains. Interstate buses are yet to resume operations in the Capital.
Asymptomatic individuals arriving in the city did not need to go into quarantine earlier, but were advised to update district surveillance officers about their health regularly for 14 days, as per the previous order on domestic travel issued on May 24.
For symptomatic individuals, it is status quo — immediate testing on arrival, and institutional quarantining till the result is out. If positive, and depending on their symptoms, they will be moved to a hospital or a Covid
Care Centre . If they test negative, they must isolate at home for 14 days.
“We have taken this (new) decision for aggressive Covid management,” Delhi’s chief secretary Vijay Dev said.
“In partial modification of the order issued on May 24… All asymptomatic passengers who enter or de-board in Delhi shall home quarantine themselves for seven days, in place of 14 days’ self-monitoring of health,” read the order.
The government also directed airport, railway and transport authorities to provide daily passenger details to the office of the health secretary who has further been directed to share them with district magistrates of all 11 revenue districts in the city so that they can engage teams to help and monitor each home quarantine case. The rule applies to those arriving by buses as well, if interstate operations resume before further orders are issued.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has maintained that chances of an increase in cases are likely with the government relaxing lockdown norms this week.
Jugal Kishore, head of the community medicines department in Safdarjung Hospital, welcomed the move. “It can be an effective strategy to fight Covid-19. In fact, this rule should have been enforced on all arrivals after the pandemic broke out and India was yet to implement a lockdown.”