A group of 44 students were heaving a sigh of relief as soon as they reached the Walayar check-post in Kerala’s Palakkad district on Monday. From being stranded at the Milan airport in Italy due to the travel restrictions to spending 26 days at a quarantine facility in New Delhi, it had been a long one-month journey for these students to get to their home towns in Kerala.
The group of students reached Kerala’s Palakkad district by road. There were 10 other students at the quarantine facility who joined them and got down at Nagpur, Coimbatore and Hosur (Karnataka).
They arrived in a bus and a tempo van and were received at the check-post by their family members and health authorities. On reaching the state, all the students were instructed to observe home quarantine for 28 more days after a medical check-up.
How they reached Kerala
The students were part of 218 Indians who were evacuated from Milan on March 15. They were taken to a quarantine facility at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) camp in Delhi’s Chawla to complete the mandatory 14-day quarantine. However, with four days left to complete their quarantine, the nationwide lockdown was announced.
Even after completing the quarantine, they continued to stay at the facility due to the lockdown and gradually sought help from the Kerala government, to bring them back home.
They got in touch with A Sampath, special representative at the Kerala House in Delhi, who arranged the permits for their inter-state travel for April 10.
“Since we had the pass, we managed to arrange a bus and a tempo traveller through a private agency. There were 54 of us, with a few getting down at Nagpur, Coimbatore and Hosur (Karnataka),” Nandaja, a Thrissur native who was among the 44 students, told TNM.
The 44 students hail from Ernakulam, Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kottayam, Kannur, Palakkad, Idukki and Kollam.
The group began their journey on April 10, Friday, via road.
To help them during their long travel, volunteers from the All India Malayalee Association ensured the students received food packets at different pit stops. Bathroom facilities and snacks, too, were arranged for them during the travel.
“Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, too, helped us. Once we reached Bengaluru, he arranged a convention centre for us to get refreshed,” Nandaja added.
The group reportedly had to undergo medical checkups at every border, even though they had COVID-19-negative reports and a travel pass.
On reaching Kerala
On April 13, the students reached Walayar, where they were thoroughly examined by the health officials.
“There were talks that we would be put up in COVID-19 centres once we reached Kerala, as we had arrived from Delhi. But since we had already spent almost a month in quarantine in Delhi itself, the Kerala health authorities allowed us to observe home quarantine,” said Nandaja.
The students headed to Kozhikode, Wayanad, Palakkad and Kannur were made to deboard the bus and taken in government vehicles to their respective districts.
“I was headed to Thrissur and I got a call from the District Medical Officer with instructions to home quarantine. He also told me that an ambulance was waiting near the Mannuthy border, to take me home,” Nandaja added.
All students have been advised to be in home quarantine for 28 days.