Fliers taking detours to evade quarantine, finds Mumbai civic body

Many passengers are taking flights to neighbouring states and then coming to Mumbai to evade the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tracing and quarantining of returnees from the United Kingdom (UK), Europe, Middle East and South Africa, the civic body found.

Many passengers are taking flights to neighbouring states and then coming to Mumbai to evade the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) tracing and quarantining of returnees from the United Kingdom (UK), Europe, Middle East and South Africa, the civic body found.

A health worker takes a swab sample of a passenger in Dadar. (Pratik Chorge/HT)

The civic body is quarantining fliers from these places to detect those infected by a new, more transmissible Covid-19 strain.

In the wake of this, the BMC, along with airport authorities, are tracking the travel patterns of incoming passengers as they fear that by exploiting such loopholes, these fliers may end up spreading the new strain.

“As there is no mandatory quarantine for domestic passengers, international fliers from these countries take connecting flights to states such as Goa or Kerala, where Europe, Middle East and South Africa fliers are not quarantined. They, later, either take another domestic flight or probably travel by road or train back to Mumbai,” said a BMC official.

Dr Mangala Gomare, chief of BMC’s public health department, said, “We have alerted airport authorities and our own staff also to identify such travellers. We have come to know about such loopholes adopted by passengers to escape quarantine. Hence, we are going to find the travel patterns of passengers.”

Gomare added, “We cannot stop any citizen from taking any detour, considering it is their personal liberty, but this issue definitely needs a policy decision from our end to put an end to this practice. But again, there is little that we can do. Citizens should act responsibly before it is too late.”

According to BMC officials, passengers who are landing at Mumbai airport and seeking exemption from hotel quarantine, citing further travel plans, are allowed to go ahead via a quarantine stamp on their hand. However, BMC officials said there is only little they can do further from there, wherein authorities of their destination states are informed. But there is a chance of these passengers going to these destination states and mixing with others, considering other states are not having a rule of mandatory quarantine.

According to BMC’s data, more than 1,500 passengers who have landed at Mumbai airport between December 23 and 26 have opted for travelling to other states, and due to this, BMC have exempted these passengers from hotel quarantine and have allowed them to take connecting flights by informing the destination state government authorities.

Passengers on the other hand said they are using the loophole, considering quarantining themselves is a costly affair. Vikas Patil (name changed), a Mumbai resident said, “I landed at Mumbai airport on December 25, and BMC informed me to take up a hotel, wherein I would have spent around ₹50,000 if my quarantining would have extended to 14 days. I cannot afford so much, and hence I took a connecting flight to Goa. After spending a few days in Goa, I will start my journey towards Mumbai via road.”

Patil added, “The BMC should rather than forcing passengers to take up hotels, pay for hotel bills or keep us in Covid-19 isolation facilities, considering not every citizen can afford hotels. The Covid-19 isolation facilities are vacant, and passengers should be isolated there.” According to BMC’s data, as of December 27, out of 16,437 beds for Covid-19, 12,470 beds are vacant.

Meanwhile, Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra’s Covid-19 task-force, said, “Mumbai has already gone through a lot, and citizens should adhere to all rules and regulations of quarantining now, rather than using loopholes in the system to escape quarantine. We need to avoid any surge due to irresponsible behaviour of citizens. The Central and state government have been very kind to take precautions and not go for a complete lockdown instead. Hence, citizens should ensure taking precautions rather than being super spreaders by using loopholes to bypass the system.”

Meanwhile, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) unveiled by the state government for tourism destinations and tourists stressed on maintaining social distance and directed local authorities to set up a mechanism for crowd management and training of staff.

Some of the measures include disallowing tourists from getting their guests in their hotel rooms and also restricting staff from coming into the rooms. “Tourists who have checked in at the accommodation unit should not allow guests into their rooms. Staff of accommodation units shall not enter the guest’s room unless necessary. The guests should ensure they follow social-distancing guidelines with any staff,” said the SOP.

It also advises them to wear protective masks inside the tourist premises and adopt a zero-contact policy. With regards to tourist places, the authorities need to set up a Covid-19 team, which will have the responsibility of various functions such as crowd management, training of staff, compliance with hygiene and sanitation/ disinfection guidelines, social-distancing norms and coordination with the local health department.

It advocates a physical distance of at least 2m (6 feet) should always be mandatorily maintained by all and a clear signages of this to be displayed at frequent places at the tourist destinations. It also disallows tourists from entering the kitchen area.

However, tourist operators are not convinced with the SOPs. “The SOPs should ideally be prepared in consultation with representatives of the tourism sector. However, there are lot of grey areas which invite corruption,” said Subhash Motwani, founder, Namaste Tourism.