Chandigarh residents coming from abroad to be brought back home

All Chandigarh residents coming from abroad will be quarantined in city hotels.

On Friday, the UT administration had decided that all those landing in Delhi will be quarantined there and those landing in Amritsar as well as Chandigarh airports will be isolated in city hotels on payment basis.

UT adviser Manoj Parida said Friday’s decision was taken after Delhi authorities had agreed to keep Chandigarh-bound foreign-returned passengers for 12 days. “But on Saturday, we were conveyed that they can’t keep them there for more than 3 days. So, now, we will bring them to Chandigarh in buses and keep them in quarantine facilities here,” he said.

Parida said that around 5,000 non-resident Indians (NRIs) are expected to return to Chandigarh, but the number may vary depending on foreign approvals and Indian government’s capacity to ferry them back.

“In initial phase, we will keep quarantine facility ready for 2,000-3,000 passengers and then add depending upon arrival of passengers,” said Parida. He said different level of spaces will be created on payment basis. While CITCO’s Mountview and Shivalikview have already been factored in to, we are also in touch with other private hotels. We can also consider community centres for this purpose. More clarity is expected in next one or two days,” he said

Residents oppose move, admn makes tests mandatory

After Parida broke the news on his Twitter handle, residents resisted the move, saying that there was risk of virus spread in to the city that is already battling spike in the cases.

To this, Parida said that there will be two level of screening once these passengers land here. “First screening will be done at the airport and then our medical staff examine the passengers,” he said.

“After suggestions from experts and city residents, we are thinking about making Covid-19 test mandatory for all NRIs,” said Parida.

On date of arrival of the passengers, Parida said, “We will be informed two days in advance and accordingly will depute our resources to bring them here.”

Earlier in the day, residents of Sectors 10 and 46 wrote to the UT administration, expressing their reservations against making Hotel Mountview and Ayurvedic hospital as quarantine facilities. They said that the hotel as well as the hospital had residential areas nearby.