Some flyers caught hiding travel details

NEWDELHI: In order to avoid forced quarantine, a number of passengers coming in from seven countries designated as high-risk for the novel coronavirus infection are allegedly taking detours to reach India and hiding details of their origin countries, officials said on Saturday.

After the mandated quarantine orders starting Friday, a total of 2,624 passengers were screened at the Delhi airport on Friday, of which at least 15 passengers were caught allegedly hiding their travel details from the Airport Health Organisation (APHO) officials during the immigration clearance.

Two of the passengers, who reached Delhi from Spain via Dubai, were sent to Delhi government’s quarantine facility on Friday. Five others, who had arrived from Frankfurt, were also sent to the quarantine facility.

In its revised travel advisory issued on Wednesday, the government said that anyone arriving from seven countries – China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany – shall be quarantined, March 13 onwards.

An immigration officer said that some passengers from these seven countries were caught trying to hide the details of their origin country.

“They took a halt midway and after landing in Delhi, during their medical examination by the officials of APHO, produced the boarding pass of the second country, and did not reveal the details of their originating countries, in order to avoid mandatory quarantine,” the officer said, requesting anonymity.

However, when the passengers arrived at dedicated immigration counters for their clearance, their full travel history was revealed, the officer said.

“Friday onwards, as many as 2,664 passengers arrived from these seven countries and were scanned for coronavirus. Of these, two were identified and quarantined under category B. 15-20 others who were found hiding their travel itinerary were asked to go under self quarantine as they fall under category A. Five others, from Frankfurt, Germany, were also in category B and were sent to government quarantine facility from the airport,” the officer added.

The categories of passengers have been divided on the basis of severity of symptoms, as issued by the APHO.