Govt issues SOP, allows 15 flights a week for carriers till January 23
As India-United Kingdom flights resume partially from January 8 with a new set of SoP, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday said all passengers coming from the UK between January 8 and January 30 would be subjected to self-paid Covid-19 tests on arrival. Besides, they will also be required to carry a negative test report which should be done 72-hour prior to their journey.
The Ministry has come up with a new standard operating procedure (SOP) for travelers arriving from the UK. These SOPs shall be valid till January 30 or till further orders.
The guidelines came after Union Minister of Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri said, “Operations till January 23 will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers of two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only.”
Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will issue necessary permission for a limited number of flight operations between India and UK (as per the directions from the Ministry of Civil Aviation), to the eligible airlines. India had suspended all flights to and from the United Kingdom from December 23 to 31 to check the spread of the mutated, more contagious variant of coronavirus found there.
Later, the suspension was extended till January 7.
According to the SOP, all the passengers arriving from the UK are required to carry a negative RT-PCR test report which should be obtained 72 hours prior to the journey.
“The same will also need to be uploaded on the same portal mentioned above. After arriving at the Indian airports, all passengers will be subjected to self-paid RT-PCR tests. In the case of positive test results, passengers will be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit coordinated by the respective state health authorities,” it said.
Meanwhile, passengers seated in the same row of the Covid positive patient, three rows in front and three rows behind would also be subjected to institutional quarantine in separate quarantine centers. The passengers who are found Covid-negative after the tests conducted at the airport would be advised home quarantine for 14 days and the concerned state or district administration should regularly follow up with them.
“In case, the genomic sequencing indicates the presence of a new variant of SARSCoV-2, then the patient will continue to remain in a separate isolation unit. The patient will remain in the isolation unit as per the existing protocol. The patient will be kept in the isolation facility till his sample is tested negative,’ it said.
“The Directorate General of Civil Aviation will ensure proper separation of flights coming from the UK to avoid crowding at airports for testing and waiting for results. To ensure stringent following to all protocols, only 15 flights per week by airlines of India and as many by carriers of the UK - 30 in all weekly - will be allowed to and from the four metros of Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only till January 23, 2021.
As per the SOP, airlines and airports will inform passengers about the new protocols and also make in-flight announcements about the same. “The State-wise passenger manifest of the flights from UK landing at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai airports in India (from Jan 8-30, for now) shall be conveyed by the Bureau of Immigration to state government/integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) so that this data would be provided to the surveillance teams,” it said.
“All the contacts of those travellers who arrived at various airports between January 8 and 30 and tested positive on arrival during air travel would be subjected to institutional quarantine in separate quarantine centres and would be tested as per ICMR guidelines (or earlier if the passenger develops any symptoms suggestive of COVID-19). Contacts testing positive shall be (done),” it said.