32k to return in Phase 2 of Vande Bharat Health ministry issues pool testing rules
nNEW DELHI: The second phase of India’s massive programme to repatriate citizens stranded abroad because of the Covid-19 pandemic will bring home about 32,000 people, more than double the figure for the first phase, people familiar with developments said on Thursday.
State-run Air India and its subsidiary Air India Express will operate 149 flights to 31 countries, including the US, Australia and
France, during the second phase of Vande Bharat Mission beginning on May 16. The first phase, which mostly focused on West Asian countries, has 64 flights.
“There will be more flights and more destinations in the second phase. We are looking to bring back about 32,000 people,” said one of the people cited above.
About 15,000 citizens are expected to be repatriated from 12 countries during the first phase of Vande Bharat Mission, which will end on May 15, and 56 flights have already been brought back more than 12,000 Indian nationals. An additional 904 Indians were repatriated from the Maldives by two Indian Navy warships on May 10 and 12, and some more nationals arrived in the country on deportation flights from various countries.
The people said requests from OCI card holders can be considered after the government meets the minimum expectations of its Indian nationals seeking to return home. So far, 188,646 Indian nationals have registered with the external affairs ministry to return, and priority will be given to those with compelling reasons for repatriation.
“An additional 18 countries are covered under the second phase, including Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Italy, France, Germany, Ireland, Canada, Japan, Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. We are broadening the ambit of Vande Bharat Mission weekly in a phased manner, in line with our quarantine capacity and health protocols,” said external affairs ministry spokesperson Anurag Srivastava.
nNEW DELHI: Migrant workers and international passengers in institutional quarantine, people under isolation in hotels, and random samples of those living in green zone districts will be pool tested for prevalence of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), according to new Union health ministry guidelines released on Thursday.
A pool of 25 samples from the target population will be tested using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method to detect the presence of Sars-cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
In pool testing, throat or nasal swabs from two to five people are mixed and tested as a single unit. All individual samples in a negative pool are deemed as having tested negative; if a pooled sample tests positive, each person in the pool is tested individually to find out who is infected.
“Guideline for RT-PCR based pooled sampling for migrants/ returnees from abroad/green zones… A decision has been taken to use one time RT-PCR based pooled sampling for surveillance purposes for migrant workers in institutional quarantine facilities, international passengers in institutional quarantine facilities/hotels ear-marked for quarantine and for surveillance purposes in green zones…” reads a health ministry directive.
The green zone districts from where samples will be collected are those from where no case has been reported to date, or districts which had reported cases earlier but have been clean for the past 21 days or more.
“It is one time only testing to check whether there is infection prevalent in a particular group or not. If a pool sample returns positive, then all the samples will be individually tested for the presence of virus,” said a health ministry official, who did not wish to be identified.
The responsibility of conducting the test will lie on respective state governments.as per the protocol, a cohort of 25 people will be identified, and throat or nasal swabs will be collected by trained laboratory personnel using appropriate protective gear.