All passengers travelling via domestic flights from Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to Karnataka will have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for one week. The Karnataka government on Friday issued a fresh standard operating procedure for inter-state travellers, which mandates the same.
“Returnees from high-prevalence states coming via road, rail or air should be kept in institutional quarantine for a period of 7 days. The swab samples of these persons will be taken from the fifth to seventh day,” the SOP states.
If the test results come back negative, then these persons can return home and will have to be in home quarantine for the next seven days.
These rules, however, do not apply to children below the age of 10 years, pregnant women, senior citizens who are aged 80 years and above and the terminally ill. One attendant, who is with any of these categories of persons mentioned above, will also be exempted from mandatory institutional quarantine.
Health care professionals and those in the armed forces are also exempt from mandatory institutional quarantine.
However, passengers returning from states other than the ones mentioned above will have to be in home quarantine for 14 days upon returning.
Senior Health Department officials told TNM that the new SOP was issued to discourage travel from high-risk states unless absolutely necessary.
“The number of COVID-19 cases are increasing in Karnataka because of people returning from states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. By imposing quarantine rules, people may be discouraged to travel,” the official said.
On Friday, the state reported 138 new cases of COVID-19, and 111 of these cases were people who had returned from Maharashtra.