J&K govt announces relaxations in testing, quarantine procedure for special categories of travellers

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir government on Sunday announced relaxations in the sampling and quarantine procedure for various categories of travellers including pregnant women, lactating mothers and cancer patients travelling into J&K from outside.
An order issued by Chief Secretary J&K B V R Subrahmanyam said that the special categories of travellers will be sampled for COVID-19 testing and sent to 14-days home quarantine. Such travellers will be hospitalised later in case they test positive for the disease.
As per earlier instructions, it was mandatory for all travellers to undergo 14-day administrative quarantine before they could be sent home upon testing negative for COVID-19.
The special categories of travellers, who have been exempted from the administrative quarantine as per the latest relaxations are: pregnant women in their last trimester having a doctor’s certificate of pregnancy, cancer patients in chemotherapy, chronically ill/ organ transplant/ IVF patients discharged from a hospital after surgery, dialysis patients, lactating mothers of one year, children below 10 years of age travelling without a family member, on duty government of India personnel, returning ambulance drivers of J&K from outside states, returning travellers with a COVID-19 negative certificate from an ICMR approved testing lab not older than two days, business travellers with a confirmed air/rail return ticket booking within 4 days, confirmed hotel booking and a business ID. Those travelling by road should give an undertaking to return within 4 days besides having a confirmed hotel booking and a business ID.
As per the government order, the new testing and quarantine procedure will be applicable to all air travellers travelling from a red zone to an orange zone within J&K.
The business travellers possessing valid credentials will be allowed to proceed for their business trips only after they are sampled for COVID-19 testing. Moreover, they will be required to maintain a record of people they come in contact with throughout there trip.
The order however said that government personnel returning to their duty in J&K were exempted from administrative quarantine of government and will instead proceed to the quarantine centres set up at their respective units or places of posting.

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