Mangaluru: According to sources, MIA has streamlined the process of screening international passengers. The entire process will now be completed in the pre-immigration area at the international arrival hall.

Hitherto, international passengers, including those arriving from or having transited through at-risk countries, were undergoing rapid RT-PCR tests at the arrival hall of the airport after clearing immigration and customs.

The airport has now organized to collect swabs of passengers from at-risk countries and 2% of the passengers arriving from other non-at-risk countries selected by the airline concerned, the authorities concerned said in a release.

A dedicated registration desk, help desk, and foreign exchange services along with a refreshment counter have been set up for passengers in the international arrival area. A holding area has also been created for passengers arriving from at-risk countries. Rollable standees have been set up at vantage points explaining the latest guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for international passengers.

A special isolation room too has been set up in the arrival area to hold passengers testing positive for coronavirus. Airport Health Organisation (APHO) staff have been issued with PPE kits to transport passenger testing positive through a safe route to ambulances from where they will be taken to institutional quarantine. Other passengers have been requested to follow the directive given by the local health authorities, the release added.

Since the new testing process was initiated on December 2, 2021 for COVID-19, with Omicron emerging as a variant of concern, 74 passengers, including 10 from at-risk countries, have been screened on arrival at the airport and all have tested negative for coronavirus, the release added.