On Saturday, Karnataka Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar announced that travellers from high-risk countries such as China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand would be required to quarantine for seven days upon arrival in Karnataka.
Story so far: According to the health department, Karnataka has been reporting 30-40 cases of COVID-19 daily, with a test positivity rate of 0.59%-0.7% over the past five months.
Negative test results: Per the guidelines, travellers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand must have their RT-PCR certificate verified upon arrival to confirm negative COVID-19 status before being allowed to leave the airport.
Asymptomatic passengers who have arrived from these countries will be allowed to leave the airport and self-monitor for COVID-19 symptoms while adhering to COVID-19 appropriate behaviour, such as wearing face masks, practising social distancing, and maintaining respiratory and hand hygiene.
- These passengers will be required to strictly remain under home quarantine for the next seven days. If they develop symptoms such as fever, cough, cold, body aches, headache, loss of taste and smell, diarrhoea, or difficulty breathing, they must self-isolate and report to the local surveillance health team for testing.
Expected outcomes: These guidelines have been put in place to sustain the growing efforts to contain the virus and prevent what had happened during the initial days of the spread of the COVID-19 virus.