Omicron: Passengers have to wait longer than usual as there is only one Covid 19 testing counter to screen the passengers.
The Newster
At the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), passengers can be seen tired and restless as every passenger must have to culminate their negative test report and share their 14 days travel history with airport authority as new guidelines are issued in the wake of Omicron variant in India.
Passengers have to wait longer than usual as there is only one testing counter to screen the passengers as the concern over Omicron variant increases
Although the health officials narrate the different story which are quite different from the real scenario. According to district health officials, 25 staffs and 4 doctors are deployed at the airport for international and domestic arrivals.
Social distancing can be seen compromised as passengers found standing within sniffing distance.
Many of passengers took social media to share their ordeal. A passenger writes: “Wait time at Kempegowda International Airport is infinite for passengers coming from overseas. The queue time is longer than that for Balaji Darshana. Sad to see people waiting outside to receive their loved ones”, as reported by the Deccan Herald.
Another writes on twitter: “There is lack of proper information, coordination and there are redundant data checks. We still haven’t got out of the airport because even rapid tests are taking more than two hours to get the results. Sort yourselves!”
Another passenger cited the website crash issue and could not make a prebooking for covid test. He stated: “I have booked and paid but did not allow me to pick a date and slot. No reply on email either. I have got the registration numbers only without date and time.”
The airport authority clarifies the matter on Wednesday and said that the service provider running the laboratory at the airport experienced “some delays” in processing test results having a high volume of passengers who had to undergo RT-PCR testing. On the other hand, the authority assured that the lab would scale up its capacity to handle growing list of passengers.
It is noteworthy that the Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL) figures 1,228 passengers from at-risk countries within 14 hours on Wednesday at the airport. But on the contrary to that of the airport authority, Dr Thippeswamy, health officer of the Bengaluru Rural district says that the number of passengers arrived at the airport is 1191 and not 1228.
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