With the Maharashtra government amending its air travel rules in view of global concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirus, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) cancelled its previous guidelines issued to the city airport authorities and asked them to follow the revised ones as issued by the state.
The BMC issued this order on Friday as Mumbai international airport caters to thousands of travellers on a daily basis. The civic body's order said that with the coordination of the airport authorities, the BMC will everyday receive a list of passengers, who arrive from the countries defined as "high-risk" or "at risk". The list will also include the detailed address and contact numbers of these travellers.
"The BMC will get the list at 10 am daily, after which its staff will contact the passengers to inform them to remain home quarantined for the next seven days. Adherence to the home quarantine order is mandatory and the passengers will be shifted to government-run institutions if they are found violatingit," it said.
As per the Government of India(GoI) guidelines issued on 30 November and subsequent guidelines by the Government of Maharashtra on 02 December referred above, 7 days Home Quarantine has been prescribed to international passengers from at risk countries.
Every day at 09.00 am, CEO, MIAL shall send a single line list of international passengers, aniving in Mumbai in the preceding 24 hours from High Risk Countries" and "At Risk Countries, and those who have visited these countries in last 15 days to Shri Mahesh Narvekar, Director of Disaster Management Unit in the given format through online software. It shall be ensured that no name is missing from the above said ist and names of ONLY those passengers who have mentioned MCGM geographical area in their address be included in the list.
Ward War Room(WWR) Teams:
WWR teams shall telephonically call all the passengers under home quarantine as per the list received and politely inform them that they are in 7 day Home Quarantine. They shall provide the passengers with proper information on COVIO protocols and counsel them on their concerns.
WWR shall ensure that all these passengers are strictly following home quarantine protocols by calling them up 5 times a day and throughout their period of home quarantine to monitor their health status.
WWR shall notify and issue a letter of Information in the prescribed format to the Office Bearers of the Housing Societies of all such international passengers who are under home quarantine. They shall ensure that such passengers shall stary under home quarantine and no visitors be allowed at such households.
WWR shall regularly send their medical teams with ambulances to check whether the said passengers are complying with home quarantine protocols
On day 7 of home quarantine, WWR to ensure that the passengers undergo RT-PCR on their own accord or send concerned team to thoir residence for the same if required In care of appearance of any symptoms in the home quarantined
Any passenger violating the home quarantine protocol shall be liable for legal action under therelevant section of the Epidemic Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act 2005 Such passengers shall be shifted to mandatory institutional quarantine.
Disaster Management Unit in coordination with EPID Cell
Mahesh Narvekar, Director of Disaster Management Unit shall design software to facilitate the segregation of this passenger list as per passenger addresses into 24 wards of MCGM for tracking of al such passengers under home quarantine, received from CEO MIAL Every day by 10:00 am the disaster management unit shall ensure distribution of the segregated ist of these passengers to all 24 Ward War Rooms (WWR) and Medical Officers of Health (MOSH) EPID Cell shall do overall monitoring of Surveillance including tracking. contact tracing and other activities, and report to the concerned authorities.
Earlier, The state government's amended air travel rules mandates seven-day institutional quarantine of passengers from only three "high-risk" countries - South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe, while for domestic travel, passengers will either have to be fully vaccinated, or carry negative RT-PCR test report obtained within 72 hours before boarding.
