Passengers arriving at Delhi airport to undergo an RT-PCR test

Passengers arriving from the UK, Brazil, South Africa, all European countries and the Middle East are bound to go through an RT-PCR test, starting from Tuesday, 12 am at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi. But, it hasn’t been a mandatory affair for them to undergo institutional quarantine.

According to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) stated by the ministry of health and family welfare dated February 17, travelers from these high – risk countries can get themselves tested at the airport before undergoing home quarantine. Transit passengers needs to wait for six hours until their reports are handed.

The new SOP reads, “All travelers from UK, Brazil and South Africa on their arrival will give their sample in the designated area and exit the airport. They will be followed up by the state Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP). The concerned state authorities/airport operators will collect and convey the test report to the traveler. If tested negative, they will remain in home quarantine foe seven days and will be regularly followed up by the concerned state IDSP. These travelers shall again be tested after seven days and if found negative, released from quarantine, and continue to monitor their health for a further seven days. All those tested positive shall undergo treatment”.

It also further adds that other travelers from Europe and Middle East (other than those in flights originating from Brazil, South Africa and UK) who needs to exit the destination airport or take a connecting flight to reach out to their final destination shall go through under the same set of rules but shall be advised to monitor their health for two weeks.

In accordance to Genestrings diagnostics, the one who is enrolled for conducting such tests at the Delhi airport, the new protocol has increased the daily number of RT-PCR tests to a whooping number.

Dr Gauri Agarwal, founder-director of Genestrings diagnostics has stated that the strict measures taken to control the spread of the new variant of the virus by making it mandatory for the travelers to undergo a test who are travelling from the risk- prone areas, shall increase the number of tests from 500-600 to 7,000+.

Agarwal stated, “While our laboratory is equipped to test above 15,000 samples per day, the operations team comprising data entry operators and sample collection technicians also had to be increased tenfold to handle the large inflow of passengers from UK, Europe and Middle East. For, this a massive recruitment drive was launched immediately after the SOP was announced and at least 230 staff members was recruited overnight and trained over the next two days”.

In her accordance, during the peak time of the day (3-5am), passengers who need to undergo the mandatory testing shall sum up to nearly 1,200 per hour