Delhi govt reduces home quarantine to 7 days for asymptomatic travellers

The Delhi government on Wednesday reduced the 14 days mandatory home quarantine period to seven days for all asymptomatic travellers arriving in the national capital.

In an order, the city government also instructed all district magistrates to keep a watch on the implementation of the norm.

The airport, railway and transport departments will submit passenger manifests to the office of the principal secretary of revenue department on daily basis, said the order by Delhi Chief secretary and chairman of executive committee of Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Vijay Dev.

"All asymptomatic passengers who enter/deboard in NCT of Delhi shall home quarantine themselves for 7 days (in place of 14 days of self monitoring of health...)," said the order, which came on a day Delhi recorded 1,513 fresh coronavirus cases, highest single-day spike.

The principal secretary (Revenue) will forward the passenger manifests to the district magistrates concerned to ensure that the passengers in their areas abide by the norm.

Last week, the Karnataka government had also reduced the mandatory 14 days of quarantine period to seven days for asymptomatic travellers coming to the state except for those coming from Maharashtra.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government on Wednesday extended the 14-day quarantine period to 21 days for those returning from the country's 75 worst coronavirus-hit cities, which included Delhi,Noida, Agra, Lucknow, Meerut, Varanasi, Chennai and Hyderabad.

According to an order issued by Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh, people coming from these cities will be quarantined at an institutional facility for a week. Thereafter, they will be home quarantined for 14 days.