As of March 19, India believes that the coronavirus is still an entirely imported infection. According to the authorities, it is not yet ci...
As of March 19, India believes that the coronavirus is still an entirely imported infection. According to the authorities, it is not yet circulating in the general population. With this in mind, India’s Health Ministry has created a set of exacting standard operating procedures to be adhered to at international airports to ensure that potential cases are tracked.
Anyone with a fever or coming from a heavily coronavirus-affected country – including China, South Korea, Italy, France and others – is supposed to be immediately isolated and quarantined in a government facility for 14 days.
But with the disease having spread to more than 100 countries now, the guidelines also require many passengers who are not showing symptoms to go to home quarantine. This involves the individuals following another set of guidelines about how they should be isolated at home.
But home is often far away from the airport. And people don’t always understand or follow the quarantine rules.
With tens of thousands of people around the country in this situation (the Times of India said 70,000 were under home quarantine in Hyderabad alone), what do these challenges pose for India’s fight against the virus?
Where is home?
On Wednesday, for example, four engineering students who had just returned from Germany and were returning to their homes in...
