The government of India's southern state of Karnataka on Saturday announced that home quarantine has been made mandatory for people who travelling from Japan, Singapore, China, Hong Kong, Thailand and South Korea, nations witnessing a sharp rise in Covid cases. Earlier, the Union government in India had stated that those travelling from these countries must submit their negative RT-PCR test reports before they exit from the airport.
On Saturday, the Karnataka state health department issued revised guidelines stating, “Asymptomatic passengers shall leave the airport and self-monitor their health for Covid symptoms and comply to Covid appropriate behaviour (CAB) like wearing of face masks, social distancing, practice respiratory and hand hygiene, etc. and strictly remain under home quarantine for next seven days.”
If Covid-like symptoms are detected in the flyers from high-risk nations then those travellers will be kept in isolation at the medical facilities designated for clinical management.
The passengers were also directed by the government to inform the local surveillance health team in case they develop any symptoms like body ache, cough, cold, fever, loss of taste and smell, headache, breathing difficulty and diarrhoea when they are in home quarantine.
Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar, last week, stated that around 12 international passengers were found Covid positive in December at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru.
The officials had collected samples of all positive cases and sent them for genome sequencing so that the variants can be identified and tracked, the minister stated.
WATCH | WION Dispatch: India takes precautionary measures after Covid cases rise in China
Masks have already been made compulsory at colleges, schools, restaurants, malls, movie theatres and pubs by the government of Karnataka.
Earlier, the health minister had stated that people should not panic and follow precautions as a safety measure. The guidelines were introduced by the state government after the sudden increase in cases of Covid in several countries, especially China which is facing a massive spike in cases due to Omicron's subvariant BF.7.
(With inputs from agencies)
