People who are coming from abroad are usually special guests in India. They are warmly welcomed by friends and family who feel kindly about listening to their adventures, and are happy to receive imported chocolates in exchange. But this time, there is one 'gift' coming from abroad that nobody wants to receive - the coronavirus. Maybe people are too polite to tell the 'foreign returns' the truth to their face, but here it is: Nobody. Wants. To. See. You. Now.
Not until 14 days have passed.
There is palpable fear among the people about the disease, to an extent that some have even been subjected to social ostracism. This is definitely wrong and adding stigma will only make more people hide their travel and medical history. However, these fears have been stoked by reports of people not following recommended self-quarantine. Choosing to do so and communicating this clearly with your friends, family and neighborhood will allay such concerns to a great deal.
You might be coming from a country that hasn't been classified as high risk yet. Currently, only passengers with a travel history to China, South Korea, Italy, Iran, Germany, France and Spain are considered high risk by the Indian government and kept in quarantine. But, you should know that COVID-19 is present in 157 countries by now, and that passengers coming from other countries to India have also tested positive a few days after their return. Among the 115 positive cases in India are passengers coming from the US, Dubai, Qatar, Thailand, Singapore and Greece.
The policy for dealing with coronavirus is different in each country. While South Korea is aggressively testing people in a bid to put an end to the pandemic, the UK is reportedly working on a strategy to build "herd immunity" by allowing most of its low risk population to get infected by the virus. Some countries might be reporting more numbers because they're testing more people while other countries are showing low numbers because they're either not testing enough or they are under-reporting. The truth is, we don't actually know how bad it is.
The Indian government has imposed visa restrictions that came into effect from March 13 but there are still a number of Indian citizens arriving in India from foreign nations. If they are not from the meagre seven country list, the travel advisory is that they self-quarantine at home for a period of 14 days. You may not have any symptoms. You may have passed the screening at the airport, if you were given one, with flying colours. But, that doesn't mean you are in the clear. Unless you have been given a test for COVID-19 or you've completed the recommended quarantine period of 14 days without any symptoms, you could still have the virus and pass it on people who are more vulnerable than you are.
If you're an employer and your employee has returned from a foreign country on work, allow them to self-quarantine for 14 days. They can work from home if that makes sense for their nature of work or go on paid leave. Both are much better options than the possibility of the person spreading infection in your workplace.
A graph that compares age-wise data for coronavirus from Italy and South Korea suggests that when a population is aggressively tested, the 20-29 years age group has the most cases of coronavirus though the fatality rate for this age group is low. Coronavirus isn't the deadliest disease in itself. The problem is how fast it spreads, and how quickly it can overwhelm the healthcare system, as it happened in China and now Iran and Italy. This means that people in the high risk category, like the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions like diabetes, hypertension and lung disease will pay the price. And if the disease grows exponentially, doctors may be forced to pick and choose who they can afford to treat.
The government cannot monitor the hundreds of international passengers who land in airports all over the country individually, and ensure that they're all maintaining home quarantine. In fact, the government has been changing its policy depending on the detection of cases. For instance, a Kerala doctor who arrived from Spain on March 1, before the country was added to the list of high risk nations, started developing symptoms only by March 8. It was only after this that he disclosed his travel history to the hospital superintendent and the state officials. However, he was still not asked to quarantine and it's only on March 14 that he was isolated. He has now tested positive for COVID-19. As many as 25 of his colleagues have to be in quarantine and the Kerala government is attempting to trace patients who came in contact with him.
There have been other cases where passengers have landed in an Indian city and travelled to other places without maintaining self-quarantine. Either because they were not informed about it or they did not think it necessary. Contrast this with Lino, a Kerala man who came down from Qatar on March 8 to visit his critically ill father, and chose to self-report to a hospital because he had a cough and did not want to put others at risk. Lino was cleared at the airport and he could very well have hidden his health status from others. However, though it meant not attending his father's funeral (he passed away on March 9), Lino still put the interest of others over his own.
Each positive case of coronavirus unleashes a huge task for the officials. People who came in touch with them have to be traced, most times over several days. All these people have to be contacted and checked for symptoms and given the COVID-19 test if necessary. The World Health Organisation (WHO) already believes that community transmission has begun in India. Things may worsen in the days to come if we don't break the chain and act like responsible citizens.
To sum up, welcome back to India but step out only after two weeks. The imported chocolates won't melt and we'll probably listen to your stories with genuine interest and without cursing you inside our heads for being so careless.