People returning from abroad must be tested before travel, said Pinarayi Vijayan. (FILE)
The Kerala government today said it was in talks with the Centre on mandatory pre-flight COVID-19 testing for expats and a decision on this regard will be taken soon.
The Chief Minister also said while the state is looking at enforcing the pre-flight testing from June 25 for chartered and private flights, a final decision on the same will be taken soon as talks are on with the Centre on different possibilities.
Kerala, which has been seeing a steady increase in the COVID-19 cases, logged its highest single-day spike yet again with 141 people testing positive for the virus. Between June 15 to June 22, around 95% cases in Kerala are of those who either returned from abroad or from other states.
Of the 2,711 positive cases since May 4, 2,595 cases are of people who returned to Kerala from either abroad or other parts of the country.
Keeping in view the rising number of returnees testing positive for the virus, the Chief Minister had earlier written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting to make pre-flight testing COVID-19 mandatory for expats who want to return to Kerala.
"People returning from abroad must be tested before travel and infected people must not travel along with healthy passengers, instead should travel separately. We had written about this to the Prime Minister and External Affairs Minister. Foreign ministry has got in touch with various embassies of Gulf countries and has communicated responses to us on the status of provisions for COVID-19 negative testing. We are in talks and will soon decide on how to implement this," Mr Vijayan said.
"The state is committed to bring back everyone who wants to return," he added.
Talking about the provisions for COVID-19 testing abroad, Pinarayi Vijayan informed, "We have been told that in UAE, provisions for rapid antibody testing are available. In Qatar, a government app is followed and only those with "green status" on the app will be allowed to travel. In Kuwait, only two terminals have testing facilities, however it can be extended to more terminals as and when required by the airlines. Oman has only rt-PCR tests available and the embassy has reached out to private hospitals but they won't be ready to implement this from June 25. In Saudi Arabia , rapid antibody tests are being done by some private hospitals, however, it is not recognised by their government. In Bahrain as well, this seems difficult."
The Chief Minister also clarified that the pre-flight COVID-19 testing will be required for Indians wanting to return from all countries and not just Gulf countries.
The opposition in Kerala, however, has demanded that the pre-flight testing mandated by the state government must be pulled back.
"There are many who have lost their jobs, have been left penniless and can't even buy their own tickets. How will they pay for the tests or even get themselves treated abroad. All of them should be allowed to return", said opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala.
Mr Vijayan also warned about the increase in asymptomatic cases as well as cases where the source of infection of patients could not be traced.
"Not being able to track the source of infection of patients is a serious concern. This points towards a possible community spread. Across the country, there are over 40 per cent of such cases. In Kerala it's less than 2 per cent. We have been able to track the source of infection for 98 per cent cases in Kerala", he said.
"Where we can't track the source of infection, we are following intervention protocol, identifying potential clusters and turning those areas into containment zones," Pinarayi Vijayan added.
The Chief Minister also said that with asymptomatic cases on the rise, family members venturing out must be careful of the elderly and small children as most of the time people don't follow social distancing norms or wear masks while in their homes.