No pre-departure COVID-19 test for returnees, except ones from UAE

Only Indian citizens returning from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will have to undergo rapid antibody tests for COVID-19 infection before being allowed to board the Air India aircraft from Abu Dhabi, Dubai or Sharjah airports.

No such pre-departure COVID-19 tests will be conducted for the Indians, who are expected to return from the other countries – Saudi Arabia, United States, United Kingdom, Qatar, Bahrain, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Oman, and Bangladesh. They will, however, go through thermal screening and only the ones without any coronavirus symptoms would be allowed to board the Air India aircraft specially arranged by the government for bringing them back, sources in New Delhi said.

The returnees will be screened again on arrival in the airports in India. The ones with symptoms will immediately be sent to the healthcare facilities and all others will be quarantined for at least 14 days. They will undergo COVID-19 tests after two weeks and only the ones, who would be tested negative, will be allowed to leave the quarantine facilities, according to the Standard Operating Protocol issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA)

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan recently wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating that it could be dangerous to bring back the citizens stranded abroad without making them undergo COVID-19 tests before departure for destinations in India.

The government had in March sent medical teams to collect swab samples of Indians stranded in Iran and Italy. The samples had been brought back and tested for coronavirus infection in India and only the ones, who had been found to be uninfected, had been brought back home onboard Air India special aircraft.

A source in New Delhi said that it was not possible to do the same during the “Vande Bharat Mission” – the large scale repatriation mission, which the government would commence to bring back the stranded citizens from around the world on Thursday.

“It is not possible to send medical teams, collect and bring back swab-samples and conduct tests. It is also not possible to arrange tests locally in all countries for all prospective returnees,” a source in New Delhi said. “Only the UAE has generously agreed to spare test kits for our citizens and conduct the tests.”

The Air India will operate 10 flights from Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Dubai airports to bring back nearly 2000 Indians stranded in the UAE to Kochi, Kozhikode, Lucknow, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Amritsar during the first week of the “Vande Bharat Mission”. It will also operate 54 other flights to bring back over 12000 other Indians stranded in 11 other foreign countries.

Each returnee will get a safety kit before boarding the aircraft and the kit will contain two three-layered masks, two pairs of gloves, and pouches or small bottles of hand sanitizers, according to a note the Embassy of India in Abu Dhabi posted on Twitter.