NEW DELHI: India is readying 13 new quarantine centres at international points of entry (airports). These centres will be used for isolating people travelling from other countries who have symptoms of a disease with the potential to cause an outbreak.
According to health ministry sources, the building of quarantine centres is being funded by the PM Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM), a special programme launched by PM Modi in 2021.”The measures under the scheme focus on developing capacities of health systems and institutions across the continuum of care at all levels viz. primary, secondary, and tertiary and on preparing health systems in responding effectively to the current and future pandemics/disasters,” a ministry official said.
Quarantine is the separation and restriction of movement or activities of persons who are not ill but who are believed to have been exposed to infection, for the purpose of preventing transmission of diseases.
Experts say the pandemic, in which hundreds of people travelling from countries affected by the disease outbreak had to be quarantined, underscored the need for strengthening quarantine facilities and developing protocols to prevent such diseases from spreading.
An expert group constituted by Niti Aayog to prepare a framework for future pandemic preparedness has also suggested enacting separate legislation to handle public health crises.
