It’s a race against time in Hyderabad as Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) officials try to track down all those who have returned from foreign trips and are residing in the city since March this year. GHMC has set up teams that will go door to door to screen the foreign returns for symptoms of coronavirus.
The GHMC has formed teams to cover all the 150 wards under it. Lists containing the names, addresses and date of arrival of the passengers was distributed to all zonal commissioners on Tuesday evening. Instructions were given to form teams comprising ward, revenue, health and police officials along with a doctor.
From Wednesday morning, the teams began making house visits. However, not everything is going according to plan.
“My area had just three persons but all three houses are locked,” said B Krishna Shekar, Deputy Commissioner, Uppal circle. “All the three persons are from Italy, two arrived on March 1 and the third arrived on March 12,” he adds.
MK Ali, Deputy Commissioner for Mehdipatnam circle, has seven teams under him that is attempting to trace 123 passengers from various countries. He was given a list containing the names of all Indians and non-Indians who arrived in the city from March 1. “We hope for things to move smoothly, we have a lot of ground to cover,” Ali says.
“We are only screening them. If symptoms are shown, the doctor will decide if the person needs to be isolated,” says H Krishnaiah, Deputy Commissioner, Saroor Nagar. “We have a total of 60 passengers in three circles on the list, so far everyone is healthy the circle,” he adds.
India started screening of passengers from China on January 17 this year. On March 7, the Airport Authority of India (AAI) added 11 more COVID-19 affected countries to the list that needed mandatory screening. The AAI had even advised airports to provide the passengers from these 12 countries separate conveyor belt areas.
On March 16, the Telangana government adopted quarantine measures for both Indian and foreign nationals who arrived at the Hyderabad Rajiv Gandhi International Airport from China, Iran, Italy, Republic of Korea, France, Germany and Spain. Those who arrived at the airport through transit from Dubai, Abu Dhabi or had a travel history to the seven countries after March 15 were also quarantined.
As of Tuesday 65,238 passengers have been screened at the airport health desk. A total of 1,530 persons are asymptomatic under home quarantine and 435 are symptomatic under hospitalisation. The state is presently awaiting results for 18 samples collected.
Delay in getting passenger details?
In Kerala, while speaking about the three-member family that arrived from Italy via Doha on February 29, the state Health Minister K Shailaja had pointed out that there was a delay of one day in getting the passenger details from airport authorities.
While Telangana began mandatory quarantine for all air passengers from March 16, the local effort to trace and screen those who arrived before the date began only on Wednesday. The delay in sharing the passenger list is from the airlines’ side, say officials.
Airport officials on the other hand say they have no access to passenger lists and thus are unable to share the details with health officials. The immigration department only checks if the passenger is an Indian and if there is a travel ban on the person.
“We don’t look at travel history. The passengers’ travel history has to be given by the airline to the health department voluntarily during a pandemic,” says an official with the Foreigner Regional Registration Office, Hyderabad.
A total of six positive cases have been reported in Telangana as of Wednesday.