SURAT: Planning a Diwali vacation? Then, this is not to dampen your holiday spirit, but a heads up on health: You will have to show an RT-PCR report on return.
In what appears to the Surat Municipal Corporation’s (SMC) preparation to thwart chances of spike in Covid-19 cases during or after the festival, it had, on Tuesday, asked citizens to keep a 72-hour fresh report of RT-PCR tests handy upon return. On Wednesday top SMC officials, however, clarified that the rule will apply especially to those going outside the state and not for travellers within Gujarat.
But it is not yet clear how the civic body’s health teams will identify people who have returned from other states.
Lakhs of people from neighbouring states of Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and ALSO other parts of the country living in Surat go to their native places in Diwali vacation. These travellers return after 15 to 20 days of vacation and health officials of SMC plan to check their RT-PCR reports apart from other tourists to the city.
“If anyone tests positive, we will track that patient and ensure the person follows quarantine guidelines. If a person is not carrying the report we collect their details and get their test done,” said Banchhanidhi Pani, city municipal commissioner.
“The appeal has been made to ensure that those visiting states with higher positivity rate follow Covid-19 protocols. And when they return we can identify who is positive among them,” Pani told TOI. All the travellers coming by road, rail, air and sea will be covered under this appeal, he added.
Incidentally, the delta variant of Coronavirus had reportedly come to the city from Maharashtra where it was widespread then.
On Wednesday, four positive cases were reported in the city taking the total number of registered cases to 1.11 lakh till now. According to official figures 1,629 deaths have been reported till now. As per official records 1.1 lakh people have been discharged.
