Business travellers can go straight to hotel from airport

JAMMU: The State Executive Committee (SEC) has issued revised Quarantine Procedures and Protocols to be followed for all incoming passengers by Air, Rail and Road into the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The SOPs regarding COVID testing have been revised by the SEC in supersession of all previous orders on the subject keeping in view the minimal positivity rate among rail and air travellers.
The revised guidelines read that all passengers arriving by Air, Rail or Road into the UT of J&K shall be tested for Covid-19 antigen using the RTPCR or Rapid Antigen test or any other prescribed method.
All Air and Rail passengers who have a valid contactable mobile number with the Aarogya Setu application downloaded on their phones shall be sent for Home Quarantine for 14 days or till their test results are reported negative. In case of Air or Rail passengers without a valid contactable phone number with the Aarogya Setu app downloaded on their phones, they will be sent to Administrative/institutional Quarantine or Paid Quarantine for 14 days or till their test results are reported negative, in which case they will be released for Home Quarantine.
In the event of any Air or Rail passenger testing positive, the protocol with regard to Covid-19 positive patients will be followed.
The existing practice of 100 per cent Institutional/Administrative/Paid Quarantine for 14 days of all passengers till the test results are received shall continue in case of Road travellers who arrive in a regulated manner at Lakhanpur.
The testing and quarantine procedures prescribed above will be applicable to all air travellers from a Red district to an Orange/Green district within UT of J&K.
Additionally, some identified categories of passengers arriving by any means other than rail/air will be sampled on arrival and sent to Home Quarantine for 14 days. The categories include Pregnant women in the last trimester, Cancer patients on chemotherapy, Chronically ill/organ transplant/IVF patients discharged from a hospital after a surgical procedure, Dialysis patients with a doctor’s certificate of being on dialysis, Mothers with infants below 1 year, Children below 10 years travelling alone without a family member, Government of India personnel on bona fide government duty, Passengers/travellers with an RTPCR TEST Negative Certificate from an ICMR approved laboratory/testing facility, not older than 2 days (48 hours) before the arrival date, Business travellers by air/rail to J&K on business/industrial visits, with a confirmed return air/rail ticket booking within 4 days, confirmed hotel reservation and a business ID and Business travellers by road to J&K on business/industrial visits, with an undertaking to return within 4 days, a confirmed hotel reservation and a business ID, ambulance drivers of J&K dropping patients outside the UT, on their return, if they return within 36 hours.
The new Procedures also said that business travellers to J&K on business/industrial visits, with a confirmed return air ticket booking, confirmed hotel reservation and a business ID will proceed to their hotel from the airport and restrict their interactions to the business purpose for which they have come. They will however be sampled on arrival for the COVlD-19 antigen and, if their test result is positive, will be treated as per the existing protocol for Covid-19 positive patients. They shall also be required to maintain complete details of the persons whom they came in contact with during their stay in J&K.
Besides, personnel of Defence and Central Armed Police Forces returning to duty, including transit labour hired by BRO to go to Ladakh, are exempted from compulsory 100 percent antigen testing and administrative/institutional quarantine in any facility. The said personnel shall be allowed to proceed to the institutional quarantine of their respective Units/Formations for necessary quarantine.
Any violation of these instructions will attract penalties under the Disaster Management Act-2005 and other provisions of Law.
Information Department

KR Desk