Decision to ease restrictions for expats welcomed

TRIVANDRUM: Kerala’s decision to lift restrictions on expatriates returning from the Gulf region has widely been welcomed as India begins the fourth phase of repatriation on Wednesday.

The state has been insisting on them undergoing tests for COVID-19 within 48 hours of departure and carrying a negative certificate while boarding.

Authorities last week decided to conduct antibody tests on arrival due to federal objections as it’s not possible in most of the Gulf countries except the UAE.

G. Pramod Kumar, a former senior adviser at UNDP, said preventing natives from travelling home based on a health test is absolutely discriminatory.

“Travel ban based on health screening is also not consistent with the global conventions on migrants’ rights,” he said.

“The argument that it’s to prevent infection of more people may sound logical to the simpleminded, but it’s akin to locking up Hiv-positive people for life.”

The state, home to the largest chunk of Indian expatriates in the Gulf, has so far received 93,744 people stranded abroad.

The inflow of the people in distress is likely to increase when the fourth phase repatriation begins as the number of flights has gone up substantially.

Kumar believes it’s like weeding out the weak that some regimes do to reduce the burden on the state and the rest of the population.

“Alienating people from their rights based on illnesses, race, occupation and utility is a gross injustice,” he told Gulf Today.

“Given that people who suffer are mostly menial labourers with the risk of infection several times higher, they must have been on the priority list.”

DOCTORS TEST POSITIVE: District administration has declared high alert after two doctors and three nursing staff working in two private hospitals in Edappal tested positive for COVID-19.

Their swab samples tested positive for virus infection during the RT-PCR test as part of sentinel surveillancebeingconductedamonghealthworkers.

The two doctors who tested COVID positive on Sunday include a paediatrician and a physician.

The hospitals where the doctors served have preparedacontactlistofmorethan20,000people upon instructions from the health department, as the source of infection is yet to be identified.

More than 10,000 people, including OP patients and relatives, are listed in the contact list of the paediatrician, along with 160 IP patients.

More than 5,500 IP and OP patients made contact with the second doctor. This is the list of people they met after June 5.

All the people in the contact list have been instructed to quarantine themselves in their homes.

The paediatrician was in contact with high risk category of children, including newborns.