With reports of spurt in COVID-19 cases in at least eight countries, including China, Hong Kong, South Korea, U.K., and Germany, Karnataka will now telemonitor all arrivals from these ‘at-risk’ countries for seven days from arrival.
As screening at airports is not possible in the absence of guidelines from the Centre, the State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) has recommended that the State should conduct special surveillance of international arrivals at their residences.
Announcing this after a meeting with TAC on Monday, Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said the special surveillance includes mandatory quarantine for a period of 7-10 days for passengers arriving from these eight countries who develop symptoms.
Sources in the TAC told The Hindu that the State should conduct the special surveillance under the Epidemic Diseases Act, as the Centre has withdrawn all restrictions. “It is important that the State should not let its guard down citing the absence of guidelines from the Centre. Hence, a communication should be sent from the State Health Secretary seeking guidelines from the Union Health Secretary for screening international arrivals suitably from at risk countries,” sources said.
Advisory on mask
With the TAC recommending continuation of masks in public areas, Mr. Sudhakar said the Government has issued an advisory on mask. “While there will not be a penalty for not wearing a mask, we will issue an advisory asking people to continue wearing it, especially in the wake of the emergence of a new variant - XE in the eight countries. We are also seeing a spurt in cases in Delhi and Haryana,” he said.
Referring to the prediction on the fourth wave hitting India by June-July by a team of researchers from IIT, Kanpur, the Minister appealed to people to get their vaccination doses completed at the earliest.
