169 flyers land from UK, none tests Covid +ve
NEW DELHI: The first British Airways flight, since flight operations between India and the United Kingdom (UK) resumed after a gap of 16 days, landed at the Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport on Sunday, with 169 passengers and crew members on board. All flyers underwent mandatory RT-PCR tests at Delhi airport and tested negative for Covid-19 after which they were sent to seven days of institutional quarantine.
All those arriving in Delhi from the UK need to necessarily undergo an RT-PCR test for Covid-19 upon their arrival at the airport, as mandated by the Delhi government in an order passed on Friday, even if they test negative for Covid-19. International returnees, other than those coming in from the UK, however, can apply for exemption from institutional quarantine online, produce a negative Covid-19 report, and can quarantine themselves for 14 days at home.
Dr Gauri Agarwal, founder and director of Genestrings diagnostics that is conducting the RT-PCR tests at Delhi airport, said there were 169 people on board British Airways flight BA143 that landed in Delhi around 6.30am.
“Two of them were infants and one child was below the age of two-and-a-half years. The rest, 166 people, including six crew members, were tested and all results came out negative. We gave all the reports within 4-5 hours. We also had our staff strength increased to make sure the process is smooth,” she said.
After their tests, all the passengers were given a choice to either go to a paid hotel quarantine or free government quarantine facility. Deputy commissioner of police (IGIA) Rajeev
Ranjan said, those who opted for the paid service, were escorted by a Delhi police team to their designated hotels in Aerocity, which have been converted into paid quarantine facilities.
The rest were taken by the district administration to the quarantine facility at Terapanth Bhawan in Chhatarpur.
To make sure passengers arriving from the UK do not mix with others inside the terminal, a dedicated passage has been set up after the aerobridge.
According to the airport officials, passengers are divided into batches of 20-25 and are escorted through a dedicated corridor by the Central Industrial Security Force personnel wearing PPE kits.
Sachin Badshah, deputy inspector general (IGI airport), CISF, said a separate corridor has been set up for the passengers arriving from the UK so that there could be adequate social distancing with other passengers at the airport. “It helps expedite the immigration clearance, baggage collection and customs clearance for these passenger who are then escorted by our men to their designated waiting area where they wait for their turn to be tested,” Badhsah said.
Meanwhile, an Air India flight from UK carrying 256 passengers was expected to land in Delhi airport around 11pm.
On Friday, the first flight that landed in India from the UK after 16 days of ban, bringing in 256 passengers, out of which two tested positive for Covid-19 at Delhi airport. On Saturday, out of 256 passengers who arrived all had tested negative.
From December 23 onwards, India had suspended all flights to and from the UK up to December 31 in order to stop the arrival of a new strain of Sars-cov-2 that spreads faster. The ban was later extended till January 7.