Maha to issue revised air travel guidelines in couple of days: Rajesh Tope

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said revised guidelines for domestic air travel will be issued by the state government in the next couple of days amid concerns over the Omicron variant of coronavirusTopes comments came a day after the Centre asked the state to align its order with the SOPs issued by the Union Health MinistryMaharashtra has mandated sevenday institutional quarantine for travellers arriving in the state from atrisk countries under the guidelines issued by the State Disaster Management Authority on Tuesday nightSuch passengers will also undergo RTPCR test on the second fourth and seventh day of arrival If found to be COVID19 positive the passenger will be shifted to a hospital In case the test is negative the passenger will still have to undergo sevenday home quarantineThe Mumbai civic body on Wednesday mandated all domestic passengers landing at the city airport to carry a negative RTPCR report not older than 72 hoursIn Maharashtra six passengers from the highrisk countries have tested positive for coronavirus so far a health bulletin earlier saidTalking to PTI on Thursday Tope said ldquoThe strict guidelines are deferred as the state administration is preparing a new set of guidelines for domestic and international air travel The fresh set of guidelines will be out in the next couple of daysrdquoldquoAmendments will be made in the guidelines for domestic air travellers only The international air travellers will have to follow the strict guidelines as defined by the Union health ministry There will not be much changerdquo the minister saidThe Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC on Wednesday said the Maharashtra governments directives shall become operational from 2359 hours of December 2 2021The civic body said it has decided to give two days for the passengers coming from risk countries as many of them have already finalised their travel plans and are on the move Many passengers might be airborne and they might not be aware of these recent guidelinesTo avoid major inconveniences and also to recast their travel plans a window of two days is proposed to be given to all passengers from the risk countries the BMC statedThe Omicron variant of coronavirus has been found in about dozen countries including some from the African continentThe Centres revised guidelines for international travellers came into effect on Wednesday The fresh guidelines have been issued because of the new SARSCov2 variant which has been designated as a variant of concern VOC by the World Health OrganisationPassengers originating or transiting from atrisk countries will have to undergo an RTPCR test after arrival and will be required to wait for the results at the airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight according to the revised guidelines which came into effect from December 1If tested negative they will have to be in home quarantine for seven days and will undergo a retest on the eighth day of arrival in India If again negative selfmonitor of health would continue for seven more days it saidHowever if such travellers test positive for COVID19 their samples should be sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory networkThey shall be managed at a separate isolation facility and treated according to the standard protocol including contact tracing Contacts of such positive cases should be kept in institutional quarantine or at home quarantine monitored strictly by the state government concerned the guidelines saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever