Chennai, August 6(BPNS)
Tamil Nadu has stepped up measures to check passengers arriving from Kerala through road, rail or air. At the Kerala, Tamil Nadu border, heavy police force is deployed with a DySp in charge of each check post.
Tamil Nadu has announced that it would allow passengers from Kerala only if they had a negative RT-PCR certificate within 72 hours of the journey or have taken two doses of vaccines with the second dose taken 15 days before the journey.
The state of Tamil Nadu has made it mandatory for passengers from Kerala since August 5.
At Tamil Nadu check posts at Walayar, Kalliakavilai and other border posts, huge queues are being witnessed to conduct mandatory checks on the certificates. If a passenger has not taken the mandatory RT-PCR negative certificate, the individual would be subjected to an RT-PCR test at the check post and will have to stay in home quarantine till the results of the RT-PCR comes up. If found positive, the individual will be admitted at First-line testing centres and home quarantine would not be allowed.
Sanjay Thomas, an IT professional from Palakkad who was travelling to Coimbatore for personal work was struck at Walayar check post for hours even though he had an RTPCR negative certificate taken 72 hours within his journey.
The techie while speaking to BPNS said, “It is not that they did not allow me to cross the check post but the serpentine queue has made it impossible to cross without waiting for more than two hours.”
Tamil Nadu health minister, Ma Subramanian while speaking to BPNS said, “The government has posted health department officials at all the railway stations where the trains from Kerala reach and passengers have to produce all the certificates without which they will have to undergo RT-PCR tests.”
Minister had paid a visit to Chennai international airport along with the state health Secretary Dr J . Radhakrishnan and overlooked the preparations regarding the checking of certificates.
With Kerala recording an average of 20,000 Covid 19 positive cases daily and with a Test Positivity Rate of more than 13, neighbouring states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu has made it mandatory for passengers travelling to the respective states from Kerala.
