The Health Secretary said officials were tracking the contacts of the passenger. “We are tracking persons who were seated adjacent to him, three rows ahead and three rows behind.” He said nine persons who arrived from the U.K. by another flight were also tested. “We will be following the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the Government of India and will track the contacts,” he said.
He said officials activated the testing booth at the Chennai airport. “We got the list of persons who arrived on domestic flights, and are monitoring them. We are doing this foolproof. Similar measures are implemented at the airports in Coimbatore, Tiruchi and Madurai. We have set up information booths for persons coming from nearby airports,” he said.
Dr. Radhakrishnan, along with T.S. Selvavinayagam, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and S. Divyadharshini, Joint Commissioner (Health), Greater Chennai Corporation, inspected the arrangements made at the Chennai airport to test passengers returning from the U.K.
List prepared
The Health Secretary added that persons returning from abroad were required to undergo a RT-PCR test 96 hours before the travel and be under home quarantine. “Even if they tested negative, they could pick up the infection during travel. Following the detection of the new strain in the U.K., the Centre and the World Health Organization have issued guidelines. The Chief Minister has directed that all persons who returned from the U.K. be tested on the fourth day. Accordingly, we have prepared a list of 1,088 persons who travelled from the U.K. in the last one week. We are doing saturation tests, as we did on the IIT-Madras campus,” he said.
All these persons were asymptomatic and under home quarantine, he said, adding: “The Greater Chennai Corporation has a patient management system in place. With the nod of the Home Department, we monitor their movement. We are also conducting fever surveillance.”
