New Delhi: A Delhi government notification enforcing seven days’ institutional quarantine and another seven days’ home isolation for passengers arriving from the United Kingdom even if they tested negative for COVID-19, led to chaos at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Friday.Taken by surprise at the new rule, several people arriving from the UK found that they were prevented from leaving for their destinations at the airport by a set of rules that were not in place when they boarded their flights.Flight operations to and from the UK resumed on January 8. Passengers who took off from London in the first flights were thus already en route when the new rules came into force and were not aware of them when they boarded their flights. The first flight landed this morning with 246 passengers on board.The Delhi government order also specified that “as a matter of abundant precaution in view of the increased transmissibility of the new variant, it is decided that all travellers coming from United Kingdom (UK) to India would be mandatorily subjected to self-paid RT-PCR tests on arrival at the airport.” It added that “those who are found positive shall be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate (isolation) unit as per existing laid down period.”In the afternoon, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted a copy of the Delhi government notification.To protect Delhiites from exposure to virus from UK, Del govt takes imp decisions.All those arriving from UK, who test positive will be isolated in an isolation facility. Negative ones will be taken to a quarantine facility for 7 days followed by 7 days home quarantine pic.twitter.com/hYDsaOn8q1— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 8, 2021Only a day earlier, Kejriwal had also urged the Centre to extend the UK flight ban till January 31.With great difficulty, people have brought COVID situation in control. UK’s COVID situation is v serious. Now, why lift ban and expose our people to risk? https://t.co/ql8WIXHFFa— Arvind Kejriwal (@ArvindKejriwal) January 7, 2021With even passengers who have tested negative brought under the new rule, chaos reigned at the airport.Several passengers who had thought they would be able to return home or travel onward took to Twitter. One of them, Farzana Haque, said she was travelling with an infant and ailing mother.little inconvenience? try going through it yourself. twice covid test before & after flight, then suddenly with an infant and a mom who is seriously unwell that you have to go through institutional quarantine. sounds good sitting at home. @ArvindKejriwal@narendramodi@PMOIndia— farzana haque (@farzana69013322) January 8, 2021Many passengers were confused about what would happen to connecting flights, considering that they were going to be put under mandatory quarantine.Sir,is this order mandatory for connecting flight passengers also?Sir,please understand that when we boarded the flight , this rule was not there , therefore we made plans to quarantine in our home city accordingly.Please understand and let the other state’s passengers leave— neetashree (@neetashree) January 8, 2021Another passenger, Sourav Dutta, was quoted by NDTV as saying: “There is total chaos right now. We are inside a lounge… lots of security staff outside. We are being treated like we are in a cage… and hotels are trying to make this a business by offering deals for quarantine. We took our flight yesterday… there were no such guidelines.”Dutta insisted that he had paid nearly Rs 20,000 for an RT-PCR test in London and his negative result was accepted by Air India at the time of boarding.Other passengers also tweeted about how thanks to the now mandatory institutional quarantine, they were being asked to pay Rs 28,000 for a seven-day stay in Delhi.My flight tickets was cancelled two times,which is 90 k Rupees. RT-PCR, Uk – 20 K Rupees, RT-PCR, Delhi- 3.4 K Rupees. Now you are saying to pay 4K * 7 = 28 K Rupees for Institutional Quarantine. I am going to commit suicide because of my debts. Cannot handle these much debts— Thilakanmankuzi (@thilakanmankuzi) January 8, 2021Some passengers also wrote about the emergencies which had brought them to Delhi and sought exemption from quarantine. One Vandana Anand Bhinde filed an application that she be exempted from quarantine for a day so that she may be able to attend the funeral of her father.Another passenger, Gouri Shankar Dash, demanded that the government “at least give some time to people to react”. Tagging a January 1 tweet by Puri which said flights between India and UK will resume from January 8, he remarked on Kejriwal’s decision saying, “Flight left UK on 7th Jan & now you are tweeting about new rule on quarantine.”Dash also posted a photograph of his daughter sleeping on the ground.Dear @ArvindKejriwal I was in flight for 9 hours and since then have been locked up(already 5 hours)No baby food facility here and I also don’t have access to my bags, and also no access to my stroller. My baby is sleeping on the ground. #cruel #AI112 @HardeepSPuri @narendramodi https://t.co/InNLJhoANt— Gouri Shankar Dash (@GSDash) January 8, 2021
