Mumbai civic body to quarantine international fliers for free at its Covid-19 facility

Earlier, it had been found that a few passengers were taking detours by landing in other states and then entering Mumbai, citing that it was unaffordable for them to complete the mandatory seven-day quarantine at hotels

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday decided to quarantine returnees from Europe, Middle East and South Africa for free at its jumbo Byculla Covid-19 centre, so as to prevent fliers from taking a detour to avoid quarantine.

Healthcare workers at the screening and swab test camp at Malad, on Wednesday. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Earlier, it had been found that a few passengers were taking detours by landing in other states and then entering Mumbai, citing that it was unaffordable for them to complete the mandatory seven-day quarantine at hotels. HT had reported on December 29 how fliers, in order to evade getting quarantined at hotels, would take a flight to nearby states such as Goa and Kerala and come back to Mumbai by road or train or a domestic flight. These states have not made institutional quarantine mandatory like Maharashtra did to detect if passengers coming back were infected by the new, more transmissible Covid-19 strain, which originated in the United Kingdom (UK).

These passengers could be potential super spreaders in case they are infected by the new Covid-19 strain, BMC has stated.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, said, “We have opened our Byculla jumbo centre for institutional quarantining of incoming passengers from Middle East and Europe. This facility will be kept for those who claim they cannot afford to quarantine themselves at hotels.”

Kakani added, “There are several professionalsm service-class citizens who are returning back and they have requested institutional quarantine facilities, instead of hotels. Hence, this facility will be available for free, considering our aim is to ensure that passengers do not exploit loopholes to escape quarantine. We, at BMC, are requesting citizens to act responsibly.”

With Covid-19 cases going down in the city, the BMC’s bed vacancy also has gone up. As per BMC’s dashboard data, of the 16,437 Covid-19 beds in the city, 12,440 are vacant.

According to protocols issued by the BMC, passengers arriving from Europe, Middle East and South Africa undergo screening and are later quarantined in the city hotels for seven days. They are allowed to complete remaining seven days of quarantine at home if they test negative between the fifth and seventh day. The hotel fare is between Rs1,500 to Rs4,500, depending on the budget of each. In case of passengers testing positive, they are shifted to hospital and their samples are sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune to ascertain if they are infected with a new strain of Covid-19.

Meanwhile, until December 28, over 5,261 passengers have arrived from Europe and the Middle East. Also, the BMC has sent 12 samples to NIV, Pune, as they have tested positive for Covid-19. These 12 samples are of those passengers who arrived from the UK between November 24 and December 22.