Around 3,150 Kerala natives who are currently stranded abroad are expected to be brought back to the state in the first stage of the evacuation of citizens stranded outside India amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday that all non-resident Indians (NRIs) who will be returning to the state through the evacuation procedure of the Union government, will be compulsorily quarantined in government facilities.
"3,150 passengers are coming now. As per the information we received, the Centre is planning to bring only 80,000 people in total from abroad. It is very low. In the priority list Kerala sent, there were 1,06,139 people," said Chief Minister.
In the first phase of evacuation by the Centre, spanning for seven days starting from May 7, fifteen flights carrying non-resident Keralites (NRK) will land in various Kerala airports.
“Without fail, everyone who returns from foreign countries will be made to undergo a strict quarantine in facilities arranged by the state government for a week. After a week, people will have to remain in home quarantine for another week,” said Pinarayi Vijayan in his daily press meet, on Tuesday.
The state government has planned to quarantine the people in their respective native districts. For instance, Thrissur natives landing in Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) in Ernakulam district, will be transported to Thrissur to be quarantined at the centres arranged by the district administration.
The returnees will be put up at quarantine facilities like hotels, hostels, and houses in which nobody is living. District administrations have prepared a list of facilities. A total of 2.50 lakh beds have been identified in various facilities, across the 14 Kerala districts, to quarantine people. “Of these, 1.6 lakh beds in facilities are all set to be used instantly. If more people will be flying in, district administrations will arrange the other identified facilities,” CM said.
While in quarantine centres, samples of all the foreign returnees will be collected and tested. Those who test negative will be sent to home quarantine, while people found positive will be shifted to hospitals.
The Chief Minister also added that the state will bear the cost of expenses of people’s necessities while they are in quarantine.
However, the Chief Minister expressed apprehensions over Centre’s move to bring back people without testing them.
“When the Centre earlier evacuated people from Italy and Iran, medical teams were sent from here. But, now no medical teams will be sent. This is a cause of apprehension,” Pinarayi Vijayan added.
Meanwhile, the state on Tuesday reported three new cases of COVID-19. All the three are from Wayanad district and were infected through contact. Presently, 37 patients are under treatment in the state.
As per the information from the Centre, during phase one, Kerala will receive the maximum number of flights (15) out of the 64 scheduled flights.
According to the Chief Minister, 2,750 people will be landing in Kochi, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram airports in the first five days alone.
The airports in the state are already equipped with facilities to screen the foreign returnees. The Cochin International Airport Limited in Ernakulam district will receive the maximum — 10 of the 15 flights coming to Kerala.
In a statement, the Ernakulam district administration said that the airport has done the necessary preparations with much caution. Earlier, there were incidents of two staff in the passenger screening duty of the airport being infected with the pandemic.
“Measures have been taken to make the contact of frontline workers with foreign returnees to a minimum. Thermal scanners are arranged to screen passengers landing in CIAL. Those with high temperatures will be shifted to hospital directly from the airport,” reads the statement of Ernakulam district administration.
Taxis have been arranged to transport passengers to their quarantine facilities.
Apart from the airports in the state, the Cochin Port Trust (CPT) in Ernakulam, will also receive three ships carrying Keralites, in the coming days, said Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
“Two ships from the Maldives and one from UAE will be coming to Cochin Port in the nearby days,” he said.
The Ernakulam district administration has also given directions to the CPT that needs to be taken while receiving passengers. “Though at present there are no thermal scanning machines in the port, it will be made available soon,” it stated.
List of airports receiving flights from various countries:
Day 1 (May 7):
Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) - a flight each from Abu Dhabi in UAE and Doha in Qatar.
Calicut International Airport - a flight each from Dubai and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
Day 2:
CIAL - Bahrain
Day 3:
CIAL - Kuwait and Oman
Day 4:
Trivandrum International Airport - Qatar
CIAL - Malaysia
Day 5:
CIAL - Saudi Arabia and Dubai in UAE
Calicut International Airport - Bahrain
Day 6:
CIAL - Malaysia
Day 7:
Calicut International Airport - Kuwait
CIAL - Saudi Arabia
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