165 passengers quarantined from airport in bid to prevent spread of Corona

MP, 19 March 2020, Kolkata: As per the new set of guidelines regarding COVID 19 at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) Airport, 165 passengers who had arrived in Kolkata on Thursday morning have been quarantined in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

According to sources, on Thursday morning an Emirates flight from Dubai arrived in Kolkata at 7:51 am. Details of the passengers travelling in the flight were sent to NSCBI Airport authorities well in advance. It was mentioned that 165 out of 242 persons were from Dubai, while the rest were transit passengers.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has expressed her dissatisfaction over the screening of people coming from abroad at the airport.

Airport authorities had earlier decided to quarantine every passenger coming from Gulf countries. After the flight landed on Thursday, 165 passengers who had boarded the flight from Dubai were identified and separated from others.

They were handed over to medical team from the state Health department, in order to take them to the quarantine facility in New Town.

Other passengers who had come from other countries and had started the journey before 12:00 hours, GMT, were allowed to enter the city after proper scanning.

Kaushik Bhattacharjee, Director of NSCBI Airport on Thursday said: "On Thursday 165 passengers have been quarantined. From now on no one from the countries mentioned in the advisory will be allowed to enter the city till March 31. Airlines have been informed about the decision about people from UK and Europe so that they do not allow any passenger from there to board the flights to Kolkata after 12:00 hours, GMT on March 18."

This apart, several passengers have alleged in the past few days that they were detained for a few hours for getting their health checked at the airport. Bhattacharjee on Thursday denied the allegation and stated that scanning of one passenger takes around 15 seconds. People may have to wait for a few minutes, but not hours, he added.