The Delhi High Court on Wednesday ordered to send a family of four, which was sent to seven-day institutional quarantine after returning from the U.K. despite testing negative for COVID-19, to home quarantine for seven days.
Justice Prathiba M. Singh noted there was a lack of clarity in the notifications regarding quarantine of passengers coming from the U.K. The Central government said its guidelines only mandate 14 days home quarantine for travellers from the U.K. if they test negative and institutional quarantine is not advised.
The Delhi government, on the other hand, said there was a January 29 Central government Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), which stated that all passengers sitting close to a traveller who tested positive for COVID-19 have to be sent to institutional quarantine.
“Since there is no clarity about the SOP, and the petitioners [family] include two children below the age of 10 years, they shall remain in home quarantine instead of institutional quarantine,” the High Court said.
It also directed the Delhi government to give clear instructions to the IGI Airport to display testing norms prominently on its website, so that travellers are aware and there is no confusion.
The High Court’s order came on the family’s plea claiming that all the members were tested for COVID-19 when they arrived from the U.K. on February 20 and despite testing negative, they were “illegally and unlawfully” sent to institutional quarantine.
