Covid-19: 5,500 fliers from Europe and Middle East spared quarantine, says Mumbai civic body data

Almost two weeks after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started screening passengers arriving from Europe, Middle East and South Africa for new Covid-19

Almost two weeks after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) started screening passengers arriving from Europe, Middle East and South Africa for new Covid-19 variant, over 11,000 passengers have arrived of which around 50% passengers were exempted the mandatory hotel quarantine, considering they had further travel plans or resided in other states. Some were exempted owing to emergency travel, states the BMC data.

Healthcare workers conduct Covid-19 screening and swab test at Malad (West). (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

The civic body started quarantining incoming passengers from many countries from December 23, as a precautionary measure to detect a new variant of Covid-19 that was first reported in the United Kingdom (UK).

According to BMC’s data, over 11,000 passengers have arrived from Europe and the Middle East between December 23 and January 1, of which over 5,500 passengers were allowed to leave Mumbai as they were from other states, had future travel plans or were given exemption due to emergency.

A BMC official said, “We are regularly testing passengers on completion of the seventh day, and positive samples are sent to National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, for further investigations. However, not a single passenger is tested for the new strain of Covid-19 yet. We are going to continue testing until further guidelines on the same from the state or central government.”As per BMC’s protocol, every passenger has to be kept at mandatory quarantine facilities and undergo a Covid-19 test on the seventh day. Further, the passengers are hospitalised if they are tested positive. If they are tested negative, the passengers are allowed home quarantine for seven days.