Arriving passengers continue to walk out without screening at city airport

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:22.06.2020

Around 1,000 people walked out of the airport unmonitored even when a complete lockdown has been announced to prevent spread of Covid-19 on Sunday.

Around 1,000 to 1,300 passengers who landed from different cities boarded cabs and reached their homes with just a thermal screening and stamping of a home quarantine stamp on them. Though the airport has flights from hotspots like Delhi and also passengers arriving from Mumbai via connecting flights, the state government is yet to take samples for RTPCR tests. However, the state government’s health bulletin released daily shows the number of domestic air travellers that test positive, which gives the impression that all arriving passengers are tested. But only those with symptoms are isolated and tested.

Hence, 51passengers tested positive even though 44, 023 passengers have arrived at the airport since May 25 when domestic flights resumed. The details of the domestic flights in which the infected passenger arrived is also not mentioned in the bulletin. On Sunday, one passenger each from Delhi, Maharashtra and Telangana tested positive. On Saturday, five passengers from Delhi and one from Assam tested positive. Airline staffers, who work in the high risk environment using protective gear, say that several asymptomatic patients must be slipping by.

On Sunday, there were fewer passengers because many cancelled their trips fearing that cabs will not be available to travel into the city from the airport. However, the airlines saw a good number of people flying out. An airline official said that departures are going full, especially to Delhi, while the number of people arriving into Chennai has become fewer because of the shutdown that started on June 19. The airlines have cut the no. of flights from 66 flights on Sunday to 60 flights on Monday.