With the resuming of domestic flight operations, the Visakhapatnam airport and the district administration which have been busy managing the Indian nationals who returned from abroad in repatriation flights, has another big task at hand—handling the passengers from high-risk States.
Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu have been designated as high-risk States, apart from Delhi, where the incidence of COVID-19 is high. and the officials are in no mood take any chances when it comes to checking the spread of coronavirus through the high mobility of people. The passengers from these States will be put in mandatory institutional quarantine once they landed in Vizag.
The district officials are confident as there do not seem to be any major complaints from the existing the quarantine facilities, barring concerns over the quality of food, lack of masks and poor hygiene at a few centres.
ISO certification
The Visakhapatnam airport, which handled over 500 foreign returnees who arrived in four Vande Bharat flights, has not reported a single case of COVID-19 thus far.
The airport has bagged the ISO certification from a third party for good hygiene practices and security management, apart from ISO 9001: 2015 quality management system, ISO 14001: 2015 environmental management system and ISO 45001: 2018 occupational health and safety management system for COVID-19. The third party audit was done by a team comprising of a retired judge, a university expert and others.
Maintaining database
"We are ensuring that all passengers undergo mandatory tests, though there could be delays. Apart from thermal screening and swab tests, the complete details of passengers such as address, mobile number, date and place of arrival are being recorded on arrival. Those who test positive are sent to institutional quarantine and the rest are being allowed home quarantine," says airport Director M. Raja Kishore.
"None of the employees and officials of different government, airline companies and other private agencies have developed any symptoms till date, despite handling passengers from different countries. All incoming and outgoing passengers are being screened and those with symptoms are isolated immediately. This is being made possible by the collective efforts of airlines, health authorities, Airports Authority of India (AAI) and all other agencies concerned," he says.
Quarantine tariff
All foreign returnees are being tested on arrival at the airport. They are sent for compulsory quarantine at their respective native places. The cost of food and accommodation for hotels above 3-Star has been fixed at ₹35,000, for 3-Star at ₹28,000 and for budget hotels at ₹15,000 for 14-day quarantine period.
Meanwhile, the district administration has made elaborate arrangements for the people who are returning from different States.
According to District Collector V. Vinay Chand, all domestic passengers are being categorised under travellers from high risk and low risk States. "The high risk passengers will be screened by thermal scanner and pulse oximeter. Those who test negative will be allowed home isolation for another seven days," says Mr. Vinay Chand.
Those who do not show symptoms will be sent to home quarantine for seven days after their swab samples are taken. The same procedure will be adopted for the passengers from low risk States. Pregnant and lactating women, children below 10 and senior citizens with chronic illness will be sent to home quarantine.
The same procedure is followed in case of passengers arriving by trains and buses from high and low risk States. "We have 2,000 single rooms at present and plans are afoot to increase it to 3,500," he added.
