Mumbai authorities have decided to amend the mandatory institutional quarantine rules for passengers arriving at the Mumbai International Airport from the UK, South Africa, Europe, and the Middle East.
Under the new guidelines issued by the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, travellers will be kept under institutional quarantine on arrival and RT-PCR tests will be conducted only on the seventh day after at the hotel or institution they are lodging at their own cost. If the reports of the test come negative, they will be allowed to leave the quarantine facility on the condition of seven days mandatory home quarantine. Returnees will be stamped ‘home quarantine’ and they have to submit an undertaking that they will abide by guidelines.
If a returnee from the UK tests positive, that person will be shifted to Seven Hills Hospital. The GT Hospital has been allotted for Covid-19 positive returnees from other countries.
Earlier the BMC guidelines on 14 days mandatory quarantine suggested symptomatic passengers from the UK to be sent to the hospital for further investigation and checkup. Passengers from the rest of the countries like Southeast Asia and the United States will not be sent to institutional quarantine, however, will be stamped for 14 days home quarantine by airport authorities as a precautionary measure.
Institutional quarantine guidelines are exempted for officials working in foreign embassy and Counsel General Office. Officials working in the embassy applying for exemption will have to adhere to guidelines under the Vande Bharat Mission.
The Maharashtra government has also imposed a seven-hour night curfew in cities across Maharashtra from December 22 for the next 15 days as a precautionary measure.
The new mutant strain of coronavirus found in the UK has forced Boris Johnson to announce another lockdown before Christmas. Several countries have imposed restrictions on flights from the UK and other European countries and South Africa.