Kerala to compulsorily quarantine rescued expats

Kerala will be at the vanguard of the biggest influx of mass returnees from overseas as centre plans to evacuate stranded Indian expats in 65 flights from 7 May, likely to make it vulnerable to a rising tide of infections and testing the limits of its vaunted public health infrastructure.

“We welcome our brothers from abroad. But when people arrive, we cannot deflect from the aim of curbing the spread of infection. Chances of infections are very high in air travel. Global norms should be followed, and those coming in special planes should be screened for infections before they begin their journey,” said Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan to reporters.

Vijayan said that he has written a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, mentioning these and other glitches in the centre’s plans. “Earlier when people were evacuated from Italy and Iran, Indian medical team had tested them before they began their journey,” he said.

Kerala is supposed to receive 15 flights, the most, out of the 64 flights to evacuate the expats, according to the centre. Each plane will be carrying 200 passengers, and if one of them has the infection, everyone else will be in danger, said Vijayan. “This is not just harmful to Kerala, this can increase the spread of infection across the country,” he said.

The state has ordered two lakh antibody test kits and planned decentralized quarantine measures. The returnees will be taken to the state’s quarantine facilities set up near the airports, where they will be put up for a week in observation or treatment. Meanwhile, similar compulsory quarantine was announced on Tuesday for those returning from red zones in other Indian states too. A total of 1,80,540 people have registered with Kerala to return from other states. The state has issued 25410 passes for them so far, and 3363 have already returned in 24 hours since the borders were opened on Monday.

“We will not be able to send anybody directly to their houses without a minimum of seven days quarantine. They will be subjected to PCR tests on the seventh day. The test results will be available the next day, so those tested negative will be sent home but they will have to be at home for the next seven days. Others will remain in state quarantine,” he said.

For those tested negative after a week, if they don’t have enough facilities back home to continue the quarantine for another week, the state will house them in isolation beds set up in 2.5 lakh isolation beds identified in every districts, including vacant houses and houseboats. “One lakh beds are readily available. We also hope our facilities to increase from 45000 PCR tests to 60000 by this month’s end,” Vijayan said.

The CM also called the centre to reexamine the number of evacuees, claiming it is too low.

“We are told that through Kochi, Calicut and Trivandrum airports, 2250 people will be arriving in the first five days. The total number of people brought to Kerala by the Indian government, we are told, is 80000 people. But Kerala’s own estimation has it that we will have to evacuate 1,69,136 people on a priority basis. These are people who lost jobs, whose job visa expired, who got from jails, pregnant women, stranded children, those whose visiting visa expired, students who have finished their course and so on,” he said.

“A total of 4,20,000 people have registered with the state to return so far. A system to exchange this data has not yet made available by the External Affairs Ministry or Embassies. Our demand was to bring home people on the priority list,” he added.

Also, the CM said the state is baffled by the exemption of the fourth international airport in the state, at Kannur district, from the list of destinations for the flights. “Kannur airport is exempted without giving any reason. Some 69179 persons have registered with us to return to Kannur. If they get down at somewhere else during the lockdown, we can guess their hardships,” he said.

Since the returnees will be coming through seaways too, similar arrangements have been made in Cochin Port in Ernakulam district too, where they will be docked, said Vijayan. People from other states will be allowed to travel back to their states once they arrive in the air and seaports, he said.