MUSCAT: Keralites in Oman are agitated over an order of the state government making COVID-19 negative test certificate mandatory for travel to the state in both Vande Bharat Mission and charter flights.

Kerala Government on Wednesday said passengers boarding flights to Kerala from any overseas country must do a PCR / Trunet Covid/ Antibody test to identify the COVID positive cases and “to bring in only those who are tested COVID negative. They should carry their test report with them for verification,” a letter from Chief Secretary Dr. Vishwas Mehta, to Sanjay Bhattacharya, Secretary at Ministry of External Affairs said.

Speaking to The Arabian Stories, K. Yusuf Salim, Treasurer of KMCC Muscat, a social organisation that has already repatriated over 2,000 stranded passengers through chartered flights, said the decision will dim hopes on needy Indians who wish to return home in the wake of coronavirus crisis. “We would like to know on what basis the government took this decision. This is a heartbreaking call to have mandatory Covid-19 test which is expensive here,” he said.

Expensive PCR test
The RT-PCR test which used to detect the presence of viral RNA of coronavirus in a test sample through a nasal swab is currently the standard confirmatory test for the diagnosis of COVID-19 in Oman. However, private hospitals in Oman charges between OMR 55 to OMR 85 for PCR tests and for hundreds Keralities, this will be an additional burden as they are already paying an exorbitant ticket fare to return home.

TrueNat test not approved in Oman
Oman has not approved the TrueNat, which was used for testing drug-resistant tuberculosis, also as a quick PCR test for screening COVID-19. Antibody test which is cheaper, is not done in all the private hospitals in Oman. “The issue is for those poor Keralities who are staying in interior places. They have to come all the way to Muscat to do these tests and practically it is not possible,” said Ajesh Nair, an Engineer based in Muscat, who will be flying to Kerala next week. “When I checked in one hospital, they said the PCR test result will come only after 3-5 days of Covid-19 testing,” Nair said.

According to the Kerala Government, the overall infection rate among returnees from the Middle East has risen to 3 percent, with returnees in some of the countries reporting as high as 6 percent infection upon arrival in Kerala, the letter from the government says while stressing on the importance of testing.

“This has posed serious problems to the Government as many of the returnees could be asymptomatic carriers and potentially infecting people around them. If this is not addressed, there could be a surge of infection, leading to serious consequences to the people of Kerala,” Vishwas wrote in his letter.

KMCC Muscat have already chartered eight flights and three more additional flights will be operating in the coming days. “This decision by the government must be immediately withdrawn. It will be difficult for those travelling particularly for medical emergency,” Salim added.