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Bengaluru, Mar 19: To better enforce social distancing and prevent further spread of Covid-19, the Karnataka health and family welfare department on Wednesday said it will "stamp the back of the palm" of international passengers advised to be on home quarantine, along with the date they are allowed to get out of home. The stamping process began at 12am Thursday.

Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner, health and family welfare, said: "It is noted that a few passengers under home quarantine are not following the instructions. Therefore, it has been decided to stamp the back of the palm of their left hand with a specially designed stamp which will indicate the last day of quarantine."

He said the special stamp will use an indelible ink and "airports in Karnataka have been instructed to follow this without fail". On average, about 3,000 people are arriving in Bengaluru on international flights every day.

The department said social distancing is the only known method of combating the spread of Covid-19 and added, "International passengers are segregated as symptomatic and asymptomatic."

High-risk flyers kept at mass quarantine unit

The symptomatic passengers (Group-A) are taken to designated hospitals; asymptomatic ones, depending on the port of origin, are taken to the quarantine centre or permitted to go on home quarantine.

At the mass quarantine centre, the asymptomatic passengers are divided into moderate-risk (Group-B) and high-risk (Group-C) categories.

“The high-risk passengers are kept at a mass quarantine centre for medical observation. The moderate-risk passengers are being sent for home quarantine where they need to spend 14 days,” the statement added.

Pandey said: “International passengers changing flights within the country cannot be stopped. Ideally, they should be stamped at the first port of entry when they arrive from a foreign country which is not happening.” He said this issue will be brought to the notice of the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation.

Mangaluru, May 12: Air India will operate two flights - one each from Doha and Muscat - to bring back stranded Kannadigas from Qatar and Oman to Mangaluru next week. 

The flight from Muscat to Mangaluru will be operated on May 20 via Bengaluru. It will depart from Muscat International Airport at 1.15 pm local time and reach Bengaluru at 6.15 pm. After the layover at Bengaluru airport, the flight will take off at 7.15 pm and land at Mangaluru International Airport at around 8.10 pm.

Doha – Bengaluru – Mangaluru flight is will be operated May 22. The flight will take off from Doha at 1.30 pm local time and will land at Bengaluru at 8 pm. It will take off from Bengaluru at 9 pm and land at Mangaluru airport around 9.35 pm.

Bengaluru, Mar 10: Three more positive COVID-19 cases have been confirmed in Karnataka taking the tally to four, state Health Minister B Sriramulu on Tuesday informed.

"Their family members have been isolated and their health is being monitored. I urge citizens to take precautionary measures and co-operate in preventing the spread of this infection," Sriramulu said.

As on Monday, the national tally of persons affected by the coronavirus is 45.

According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), in the past 24 hours, one positive case from Kerala, two from Pune, and three from Bengaluru have been confirmed.

Apart from the ICMR; National Institute of Virology in Pune; 51 Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories; and National Centre for Disease Control, New Delhi are carrying out tests for COVID-19.