Bhubaneswar: Amid growing concern over the detection of a more contagious strain of Coronavirus in the United Kingdom, a man, who has recently flown in from the European country, has been identified in Bhubaneswar.
He has been asked to stay in home quarantine, Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Prem Chandra Choudhury informed.
The UK returnee will undergo RT-PCR test and would be offered institutional isolation if he tests positive, reports said.
Meanwhile, the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here has issued Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) for all the airlines. The carriers have been asked to inform the airport authorities about the passengers returning from the UK.
The BMC has set up kiosks at the terminal to screen passengers for COVID-19 arriving at the airport from UK.
Notably, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday had made RT-PCR test mandatory for passengers coming from the UK. They would be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility if found positive, the ministry clarified.
India has already suspended all passenger flights connecting the United Kingdom from Wednesday till December 31 or till further orders in the wake of the emergence of a mutated strain of the virus.
According to the guidelines, state-wise passenger manifest of the flights from the UK landing at various airports in India for the past four weeks shall be conveyed by the Bureau of Immigration to the state government and Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) so that the data would be provided to the surveillance teams for tracking.
It stated that all travellers from the UK will be required to declare, according to the existing procedure, their travel history of past 14 days and fill up the self- declaration form to be screened for COVID-19.
All passengers coming from the UK from December 21 to 23 would be subjected to the RT-PCR test on arrival and this has to be ensured by respective state governments, the SOP stated.