Carrying lab report? Karnataka exempts you from institutional quarantine

The State Government on Monday exempted visitors arriving in Karnataka with latest lab reports certifying them to be Covid negative from institutional quarantine. If a report from an ICMR-approved lab shows a traveller to be Covid negative, he or she can straightaway go home, but will need to be under home-quarantine for two weeks. The report, however, should not be older than two days.

This is expected to bring relief to a large number of travellers who, otherwise, have to wait at facilities such as railway station, airport, bus stops and inter-state checkpoints for healthcare workers to collect them swab samples at places of their institutional stay. Karnataka's latest relaxation will help visitors from high-risk states such as Delhi, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.

The govt also exempted both union and state ministers, officers on duty as well as airline crew members from quarantine.

Earlier regulations required visitors from the six high risk states to spend the first week in institutional quarantine and the second week in home quarantine.