Nagpur: 24 of 42 Sharjah flight passengers take corona test; all negative | Nagpur News – Times of India

NAGPUR: Covid-19 RT-PCR tests of 24 of 42 air passengers who arrived in Sharjah flight have been completed and all are negative. Results of remaining 18 flyers are awaited.
After being stopped for 11 months due to pandemic, Sharjah flight resumed on February 14. First flight arrived with 60 passengers.
As per the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) data, 37 flyers were exempted from seven-day institutional quarantine for various reasons. Eighteen of those were not residents of the city, so the civic body had alerted district administrations of their respective cities for home quarantine and testing on fifth day.
Twenty three flyers were in institutional quarantine in the city of whom 15 were in private hotel, seven in VNIT Hostel and one in hostel of a medical institution. An NMC official told TOI, “Results of 13 of 23 in institutional quarantine were negative. Results of 10 are awaited.”
The official added 11 of 19 in home isolation also got tested and all are negative. Results of remaining eight are likely tomorrow.
NMC has tested seven passengers in institutional quarantine at its free-of-cost facility at VNIT Hostel. Those in private hotels were reportedly given option of testing by the NMC or on their own at private laboratories. A passenger told TOI, “I opted for testing by a private laboratory.”
As per standard operating procedure (SoP) prepared by the NMC, all passengers are supposed to be tested on fifth day and discharged on seventh day if found negative. Accordingly, 13 flyers in institutional quarantine are likely to be discharged on Saturday.
If anyone tests positive, NMC is likely to admit them as suspected patient of mutated variant in special ward of GMCH. The same SOP was implemented by the central government in December for returnees from Europe, South Africa and Middle East.
Next flights from Sharjah will arrive on February 21 and 28. Decision on continuation of flight weekly or daily is likely to be taken on March 2. Earlier, Sharjah flight was a daily one. City’s airport had only two international flights. The other flight from Doha is yet to resume service.