'A dangerous move': Kerala CM slams Centre's plan to bring expats without COVID-19 tests

Compulsory Coronavirus screening enforced at Agartala Airport. File photo: PTI

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan strongly objected to the Centre's decision to fly in Indians stuck abroad without conducting any test for the virus before take off. He termed the move dangerous and said it could stoke a massive spread of the disease in the country.

Special aircrafts ferrying Indian citizens in foreign lands will start arriving from May 7. “There would be more than 200 passengers in a plane and if one or two have the virus, the safety of everyone in the aircraft would be compromised. This could send the virus raging across the country,” the chief minister said during his customary sunset briefing in Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.

He said India could not afford to shift its focus from reining in the virus spread. “Flouting globally-accepted security guidelines is unfortunate. So we have once again asked the Prime Minister to check the passengers before they board the aircraft,” the chief minister said.

If there are no testing facilities in the other countries, Pinarayi said a medical team should be sent to check the viral status of returning Indians. He said a medical team had earlier flown to Italy and Iran to test stranded Indians before they were allowed to board the rescue aircraft.

A few hours later, Union Minister of State for External Affairs told Manorama News that expatriates would be brought back home only after COVID tests. “The Indian Council for Medical Research would issue the guidelines latest by tomorrow morning,” he said.

No five-star treatment

If the Centre sticks to its non-testing policy, the chief minister said that Kerala's earlier guidelines for returning citizens would be altered, made stricter. Earlier, it was said that those without symptoms would be allowed to observe home quarantine. Now, the chief minister said all who were returning, regardless of whether they had symptoms or not, would have to observe quarantine in a government-run isolation facility for at least seven days.

The samples of returnees thus quarantined would be subjected to a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test after seven days. Only those individuals who test negative would be allowed to go home, where they would be asked to complete their remaining seven days of mandatory quarantine period. Those testing positive will be shifted to hospitals for treatment.

Earlier, it was said that non-symptomatic returnees could complete their quarantine even in five-star hotels of their choice. This choice has also been withdrawn.

Priority list: Centre vs State

The chief minister also expressed his disappointment at the number of people the Centre had allowed to return. He said

4.42 lakh people had already registered with Norka-Roots seeking return. From this, the government had drawn up a priority list of 1,69,136 individuals. Priority is given to those who had lost their jobs, could not get their work contracts extended, were released from jails, had expired their visiting visas, and also children separated from their parents, pregnant women and students who had completed their studies.

The chief minister said he had information that only 80,000 would be allowed to return. Those allowed to return need not necessarily be from the priority list drawn up by Kerala. The state had passed on the list to the Centre but it was not shared with the concerned embassies and the External Affairs Ministry because they have not created the facility for the purpose at their ends.

The Chief Minister was also miffed that Kannur airport was struck down from the list of airports where aircrafts carrying returning Indians could land. Now, the special planes will touch down only in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode airports.

Pinarayi said there were 69,179 Keralites, among the 4.42 lakh who had registered with NORKA, who had opted for Kannur as their landing destination. “If these people landed in other airports, they would find it difficult to travel to their homes during the lockdown period,” Vijayan said.

The chief minister said the volume of influx would increase from the next week when 20,000 people were expected every day. 

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