On Monday, August 30, the Karnataka government had issued an order mandating institutional quarantine for students and employees entering the state from neighbouring Kerala, which continues to report a high number of COVID-19 cases. Issuing details about the same, the Karnataka government said that quarantine arrangements must be made or paid for by the respective educational institutions and companies, firms or offices of these students and employees. It added that the home quarantine of these individuals cannot be allowed under any circumstance.
In keeping with the mandate already in place, the students and employees must produce a negative RT-PCR test not over 72 hours if they want to enter the state. This is irrespective of the person’s vaccination status (single or double dose), and the vaccine certificate must not be older than 5-7 days.
Under institutional quarantine, the individuals will be under strict monitoring for seven days and an RT-PCR test will be done at the end of the week. If the person tests negative, they can leave the quarantine facility.
In case a person has a breakthrough infection, i.e tests positive 14 days after second dose of taking the vaccine, the samples of cases which have a CT value of less than 25 (severe infection) will be sent for whole genome sequencing to identify the variant. Pending the results, the samples may be subjected to reflex/variant PCR testing to identify the virus variant quickly.Breakthrough infections protocol
Persons who are not employees or students who are visiting Karnataka from Kerala should produce an RT-PCR negative certificate and home quarantine for seven days.
The following categories of persons are exempted from institutional quarantine
> Constitutional functionaries, health care professionals and their spouses
> Children below two years of age
> Emergency cases (death in the family, medical treatment etc)
> Short term travellers (three days or lesser)
> Students coming to Karnataka for examination along with one parent each (three days or lesser)
> Transit passengers (from and to Kerala) and on any mode of transport
The state government clarified the rules for students and employees from Kerala as there were many cases of people testing positive after repeated tests, despite producing a negative RT-PCR test upon arrival in Karnataka. Such cases, the order explained, are found to be high in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.