Maha revises guidelines for international arrivals again, domestic rules eased

In a bid to keep the statersquos guidelines for international and domestic air travellers in sync with the Centrersquos and not make them more inconvenient and stringent the Maharashtra government has revised its November 30 order As part of the changes made the number of Omicron highrisk countries has been brought down to three and restrictions on domestic air travel have also been easedldquoThe restrictions imposed by the Government of India from time to time shall act as minimum restrictions to be imposed on all international and domestic air passengersrdquo says the order issued by state Chief Secretary Debashish ChakravartyPeople wait for passengers at the arrival section of the Mumbai international airport on November 30 File picHighrisk countriesAs per the new guidelines South Africa Botswana and Zimbabwe have been categorised as highrisk countries The list of highrisk countries will be updated based on the evolving situation in view of the Omicron threat Passengers landing in Maharashtra will be categorised if they arrive from any of the highrisk countries or have visited any of them in the past 15 days before arriving in the state at any internationaldomestic airport RestrictionsIn addition to the Centrersquos guidelines the state will also implement its own regulationsHighrisk passengers will be deplaned on priority They will be verified and screened at separate counters and subjected to RTPCR tests immediately on arrival They will have to undergo a mandatory sevenday institutional quarantine with the second RTPCR test to be carried out on the seventh day If found positive passengers will be shifted to COVID hospitals In case of negative results on the seventh day passengers will have to be in home quarantine for another weekAs per the previous order tests on the second and fourth day were compulsory The RTPCR test on arrival was made compulsory for all international passengers coming from the countries other than those atrisk as well and they were asked to undergo 14day home quarantine if found negativeThe passengers on connecting domestic flights were also asked to undergo RTPCR tests in Maharashtra and be allowed to proceed only on being found negative In the revised order the immigration authorities including the police have been asked to record and crosscheck the 15day travel history of all international passengers The airport will share the information with all airlines Incorrect declaration will invite penal action under relevant sections of the Disaster Management Act 2005Domestic rules easedAccording to the revised order for domestic air travel passengers will either have to be fully vaccinated or compulsorily carry a negative RTPCR test report done within 72 hours instead of 48 hours before boardingarrival The restriction of negative RTPCR tests within 48 hours of arrival for passengers vaccinated or not from other states has been liftedEight fliers are positive out of 485 tested so farBetween Nov 10 and Dec 2 2868 passengers landed at Mumbai airport from atrisk countries Of these 485 were tested and eight were found positive for COVID19 In addition one person the relative of one of the passengers was also found positive The BMC has sent their samples to NIV Pune for genome sequencingThe BMC received a list of 2868 passengers who came from 40 lsquoatrisk countriesrsquo and are residents of MaharashtraWhile the city has its own genome sequencing facility it needs a certain number of samples to start the cycle The tests were already started on Tuesday after including a sample of a positive patient from Dombivli The reports will come by the weekend and the next cycle requires another 300 samples Prajakta Kasale