As the Covid cases are on the rise once again with omicron scare looming large, the governments and authorities of world over are taking steps to detect the infected by various means. While doing so, the authorities are faced with the challenges of different kind. Authorities at Ahmedabad Airport also are finding it difficult to deal with the issues that arise out of the implementation of prescribed Covid guidelines.
Health department has mandated that the 100% passengers arriving from high risk zones must undergo the Covid test on arrival. For the persons travelling from low-risk zones, 2% are to be randomly selected for testing. Middle eastern countries like Quatar, Dubai, Kuwait and some African countries like Tanzania have been categorised as Low Risk countries.
The bone of contention between the Airport authorities and the passengers picked up as part of 2% sample of persons travelling from low risk countries is the not only the question why me, but also bearing the cost of the test. Passengers have to cough up Rs 2,700 for rapid Covid test and Rs 400 for RT-PCR test that take 6 to 8 hours of time.
Since 1st December, 34000 international passengers have landed at Ahmedabad airport. The heavy influx has made the job of covid detection teams difficult. There are regular alterations with the staff and the passengers selected for testing over random selection and the payment of the test. The random selection is made by airport staff based at times with the inputs from airlines who are aware of the travel history of the passengers for the health teams, deputed at airport round the cloak to do the testing.
