Once the largest quarantine cluster facility in the country, the paid quarantine centres in Aerocity near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport were shut by the Delhi government on Friday. From now, all Covid-19 suspected patients will be taken directly to government quarantine centres set up in various parts of the national capital.

The paid centres were opened on the night of March 16 at five hotels of Aerocity — Red Fox, IBIS, Aloft, Holiday Inn, and Pride Plaza — and as many as 608 people were put under quarantine. Most of the them were passengers who had arrived at the Delhi airport from other countries and had to undergo the mandated quarantine.

According to district magistrate (New Delhi) Tanvi Garg, of the 608 people under quarantine, five tested positive for Covid-19. Three of them had come from the USA while two were from Australia. “The Aerocity’s paid quarantine facility saw the last batch of passengers check out on Thursday. With this, the paid quarantine achieved its purpose successfully with only five positive (asymptomatic) cases. The remaining 603 persons were discharged after they tested negative for Covid-19,” Garg said. The five Covid-19 patients are being treated at Lok Nayak hospital.

Piyush Rohankar, the area’s subdivisional magistrate and the nodal officer of the paid facility, said the facility has now been closed. “Now, every district has quarantine centres, so there is no need for the paid facility anymore. In case there is a spurt in cases, then the government itself will book the hotels,” he said.

A few who stayed at the quarantine facility told HT over phone that some of them had to remain even after their 14-day mandatory quarantine was over as the government did not have a standard operating procedure (SoP) in place for their movement.

It was only on April 4 that Delhi chief secretary Vijay Dev issued the SoP which allowed persons who have completed their quarantine to return home.