Barriers and Facilitators to COVID-19 screening at Jaipur International Airport, India.

Abstract

Airports pose a possible threat in facilitating global disease transmission within the community which may be prevented by rigorous systematic entry-exit screening. Rajasthan Government has taken precautionary action at Jaipur International airport by screening passengers. The present article describes the entry-exit screening along with stakeholder perception on the barriers and facilitators associated with the screening. Secondary data was obtained from the Rajasthan Medical & Health Department team to categorize passengers for risk of COVID-19. A mix-method inductive-deductive thematic analysis was conducted. A total of 4565 passengers (Males=4073 and Females=492) with 23 suspected cases were screened during an outlined period of declaration of Pandemic to Lockdown in India (11 th to 24 th March 2020). The mean age of passengers was 40.95 ± 7.8 years. The average screening time per passenger was 2-3 minutes with a load of 25-90 passengers per team per flight. Fishbone analysis of screening revealed barriers like poor cooperation of passengers, masking symptoms, apprehension, and stigma related to quarantine. Inadequate human resources and changing guidelines overburdened healthcare providers. Perception of risk, and social responsibility of travelers together with supportive organization behavior act as facilitators. Overall, groundwork on airport screening was insightful to propose key action areas for streamlined screening in limiting transmission.