No institutional quarantine for vaccinated international passengers in Mumbai

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The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

International passengers from Europe, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, South Africa and Brazil who have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine will not have to undergo the mandatory institutional quarantine on arrival in Mumbai, said the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, according to NDTV.

In a set of new advisories issued late on March 20, the civic body has also exempted passengers above 65 years, women in the advanced stage of their pregnancy and both parents accompanying children aged below five from the week-long quarantine.

Passengers who suffer from serious illnesses that need immediate medical attention, such as cancer, severe physical disability, mental illness and cerebral palsy, can also skip quarantine if they have supporting medical documents.

Medical professionals, who intend to travel for life-saving surgery or attend to critical patients, have also been exempted if they can furnish proof from the hospital where they will perform or provide their medical services.

“Passengers from these categories may be considered for exemption from seven-day institutional quarantine, subject to providing required documents to the satisfaction of the officer-in-charge at the airport,” read the BMC guidelines, according to The Indian Express.

The passengers who don’t fall under any of these categories, however, will have to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for seven days followed by seven days of home quarantine.

The exempted passengers will have to follow the other rules such as maintaining physical distancing and wearing masks in public places.

The civic body had made the seven-day institutional quarantine mandatory for passengers from Europe, the UK, Middle East, South Africa and Brazil since December 21.

If they test positive for the coronavirus after seven days, passengers are given the option to be admitted to other private hospitals as compared to earlier rules when they were shifted to isolation facilities at Seven Hills Hospital or government-run GT Hospital. Now, they can opt for private hospitals such as Bombay Hospital, Hinduja Hospital, Raheja Hospital and Reliance Hospital.

The decision to exempt a set of international passengers was taken even as Maharashtra and its capital, Mumbai, is facing a coronavirus crisis. Mumbai recorded the new highest count of single-day cases on Sunday, as the city had a spike of 3,775 cases. The total case count went up to 3,62,654.

Maharashtra also once again broke its record and registered 30,535 new coronavirus cases – the highest since the pandemic began. With this, the total infections in the state rose to 24,79,682.