7-day institutional, 7-day home quarantine for UK returnees on testing -ve: Delhi

New Delhi: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday announced that Travellers coming from the UK to the national capital will have to undergo a 7-day institutional quarantine followed by a 7-day home quarantine even if the passengers test negative for the coronavirus. The announcement by Kejriwal came as flights from Britain to India resumed today.

The UK returnees who will test positive for the coronavirus will be isolated in a special isolation facility, and their blood samples will be sent for further testing to check whether they have the new mutated strain of COVID-19, which was found in the UK and is said to be 70 per cent more infectious and transmissible. 

"To protect Delhiites from exposure to the virus from the UK, the Delhi government has taken important decisions. Travellers coming from the UK will have to mandatorily undergo a self-paid RT-PCR test on arrival at the airport," the chief minister said.

"All those arriving from the UK who test positive will be isolated at an isolation facility. Negative ones will be taken to a quarantine facility for seven days, followed by seven days of home quarantine," he added.

Kejriwal had on Thursday urged the Centre to extend the suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom as the country now battles a variant strain of the coronavirus first detected there. The number of people who have tested positive for the new UK variant has climbed to 82 in India with 13 of them detected in Delhi. 

"The Centre has decided to lift the ban and start UK flights. In view of the extremely serious situation in the UK, I would urge the central government to extend the ban till January 31," Kejriwal had tweeted. 

On December 23, the central government suspended flights from the UK, with all passengers coming from there having to be tested on arrival at airports. The suspension of UK flights was later extended up to January 8. The flights to the UK resumed on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, an Air India on Friday landed in Delhi with around 246 passengers onboard. The Delhi airport has advised passengers to keep a gap of at least 10 hours between their arrival from UK and the connecting flight to their cities.