The Assam government has decided to go for “ruthless quarantine” of passengers coming from outside the State by all modes of transport, including air, for keeping the novel coronavirus in check.
The decision came hours after Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri advocated a pragmatic approach to quarantining air passengers and insisted that stiff measures were not required for short-haul domestic flights.
“Assam has had a sudden spike in COVID-19 positive cases since May 4 when the Ministry of Home Affairs allowed inter-State travel. In view of the grim situation because of the cases, mostly imported from western and southern India, we have decided to go for ruthless quarantine with a humane heart,” Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Friday evening.
The elites and influential would not be spared the ruthlessness that entails denial of phone and social media access, the Minister said.
“Assam now has 191 positive cases [they increased to 199 later], most of them after 37,000 people returned by road and train. This is just the tip of the iceberg, another 12 lakh are waiting to come,” Mr. Sarma said.
“All passengers will be quarantined, and we will get air passengers from three airports when domestic air travel starts on May 25,” he said.
Cash incentives
The Minister, however, said the ruthless quarantine policy will come with cash incentives.
“We have decided to stop payment-based quarantine with immediate effect. The government will bear the expenditure of up to ₹20,000 per quarantined person and all district heads have been asked to facilitate the payment,” he said.
A person in institutional quarantine would be entitled to a one-time payment of ₹500 for toiletries and up to ₹500 per day for food. The local authorities have been authorised to pay up to ₹2,000 per day to each person put up in hotels.
“Any person who does not test positive will be allowed to go after seven nights in institutional quarantine, but they will have to be in home quarantine for the next seven days. For that, he or she would be given ₹2,000 once,” Mr. Sarma said.
Zoning formula
The Health Minister said the State government had decided to modify the standard operating procedures and not mark any district red or orange until the number of positive cases touched 200.
“We are instead marking the place where a positive case is detected as a containment zone and a certain area around it as a buffer zone. Normal life will go on beyond these areas. One has to understand, these harsh steps are necessary for our own good, especially for people aged 65 years or more,” he said.
He appealed to all to be cautious while moving out of their comfort zones in view of the “sharp increase” in positive cases in Assam and adjoining States.
“While we have hit 191 cases, with 54 persons discharged, Tripura went from zero to 173, Manipur to 25 and Meghalaya to 14 in a span of a few days. And West Bengal beside us has more than 3,100. The situation will get out of hand if we are not very, very careful,” Mr. Sarma said.