COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory for NRKs returning in chartered flights from Gulf

PTI, Jun 14, 2020, 8:24 AM IST

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Government has made COVID-19 negative certificates mandatory from June 20 for Non-Resident Keralites in the Middle East taking chartered flights to the state, a decision which drew flak from the opposition Congress-led UDF.

“With some NRKsraising concerns on the matter, the government has requested the Indian Ambassadors in the Middle East to inform it of the testing infrastructure, cost, and protocols available in the Gulf,” NORKA (Non-Resident Keralites Affairs) Principal Secretary Dr K Ellangovan, told PTI.

“A private airline had insisted on the certificates,” he said.

“The danger is if an infected person comes in the flight, he/she will infect all the co-passengers. Only after we understand the views of the ambassadors will a decision be taken”, he said.

Ellangovan said, “COVID-19 cases were increasing in Kerala and about 89 percent of those infected were those who had returned from abroad. So we have to take precautions for the health of the people of the state.”

Hitting out at the government, Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said it is “strange”that the LDF government, which had passed a resolution in the assembly against the Centre for insisting on COVID negative certificates, had now taken a similar decision, and demanded that it be re-considered.

The Kerala Assembly had on March 12 passed a unanimous resolution against the Union government’s circular barring the return of Indians from coronavirus-hit countries such as Italy unless they produced a certificate that proves they have tested negative for the infection.

The resolution moved by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had said the circular was “inhuman” and was akin to “cruelly abandoning” expatriate Indians.

“There was no such stipulation for those returning by flights of the Vande Bharat mission and the decision is likely to cause immense hardships”, Chennithala said.

Most of the NRKs returning had lost their jobs and were able to come back to the state following help from various quarters,he said, adding that insisting on the certificates would further create problems for them.

IUML leader P K Kunhalikutty, MP, also criticized the government’s decision on the COVID-19 negative certificates.