Assam Issues List of SOPs for Incoming Flight Passengers. Here are the Details

Guwahati:

Preparing for the arrival of flight passengers with the resumption of civil aviation on May 25, the Government of Assam has issued Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) to prevent an outbreak of the highly-infectious Covid-19 contagion that has infected over 50 lakh people across the world and killed over 3 lakh.

Quarantine Rules for Passengers:

According to the new ruled, the pilots, air crew and maintenance staff, of both passenger and cargo aircrafts, will not be quarantined. All passengers will undergo thermal screening at the airports, and the symptomatic passengers from Assam will be taken to the nearest Zonal/district screening centre.

The asymptomatic passengers shall also have to undergo combined institutional and home quarantine of at least 14 days. The institutional quarantine period of a passenger will be 7 days or till the RT-PCR Covid-19 tests are declared, whichever is earlier. This is to be followed by a period of home quarantine. The asymptomatic passengers of Kamrup (M), Darrang, Morigaon, Hojai, will travel to one of the nearby screening centres set up at Sarusajai and Kiranshree Grand, where swab samples will be taken for RT-PCR tests before they are taken for institutional quarantine.

At the same time, the passengers from other districts will be taken to their own districts' screening centres before they are whisked off to designated institutional quarantine centres.

Exemptions from Quarantine -- who will be eligible?

Passengers on a day-long visit who will depart on the same day without a night halt will be exempted from the 14-day quarantine.

Government of India and Assam Government officials on duty "with prior intimation to Government of Assam having night halt in suitable isolated accommodation arranged by Government of Assam or Government of India or associated organizations will be allowed to return without undergoing quarantine."

Additionally, para-military personnel and transit passengers travelling to other Northeast Indian states will also be exempted.

Pregnant women, elderly persons above 75 years of age, persons due to attend funerals, children below 10 years of age, physically-challenged people, immediate relatives of hospitalized patients, and patients who have undergone cardiac, kidney, and cancer treatments -- if they do not show any symptoms -- are required to only go for home quarantine for a period of 14 days.

Persons who have completed mandated quarantine period of 14 days within the previous two weeks of travel and had tested negative in an RT-PCR test within the previous 7 days prior to arrival, and also those who tested negative for the RT-PCR test within previous 3 days prior to arrival -- upon showing no symptoms -- will be quarantined at home for 10 days.

What the District Administration will do:

The district administration will arrange facilities for planned exit of the passengers. Additionally, the Deputy Commissioner has been urged to set up thermal screening booths outside the airport building to collect undertakings, etc. from passengers who are not required to undergo institutional quarantine immediately after arrival. The DC has also been asked to ensure the maintenance of social distancing.

Transportation Facilities for the Passengers:

Bus services will be run four times a dat from Guwahati airport to locations grouped as Lower Assam districts, Upper Assam districts, North Assam districts, et al, which will be available on a payment basis. At the same time, passengers also have the option of hiring authorised taxis. However, the details of such taxis and drivers must be given in the undertakings to be submitted by the passengers to the district administration. The same procedure shall also apply for private vehicles, and Government-sector workers may use Government sector vehicles.

Meanwhile, the first flight -- an Indigo --has already arrived at the Lokpriya Hopinath Bordoloi Airport in Guwahati ferrying 77 passengers. Meanwhile, the airlines have been mandated to furnish the passengers manifest to the State Governments. Himanta Biswa Sarma, the state's Health and Finance Minister, estimates that 600-700 passengers will land in Assam today. "However, from tomorrow onwards, we expect more than 1,00 people each day", Sarma said.

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