Travelling to Mumbai? Negative RT-PCR report made mandatory amid Omicron threat

New Delhi: As new COVID-19 variant 'Omicron' has left the world worried, the Mumbai civic body decided to mandate a negative RT-PCR report not older than 72 hours even for all domestic passengers landing at the city airport. 

In a circular on Wednesday (December 1), the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) directed the Mumbai airport operator to apprise this new guideline to all the domestic airlines, PTI reported. 

"The Mumbai Airport operator to communicate to all domestic Airlines that they shall not board, ordinarily, any passenger for landing in Mumbai without RT-PCR test with negative result taken within 72 hours of departure,” the order read. 

As per health bulletin, in Maharashtra, six passengers from the high-risk countries have tested positive for COVID-19 so far. 

Earlier, the Maharashtra government had said that the passengers coming from "risk countries" will mandatorily undergo 7-day institutional quarantine and take RT-PCR tests on the 2nd, 4th and 7th-day post-arrival. The countries for which the 'at risk' rules apply include the European countries, the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.

The BMC said that for the passengers coming from "risk" countries it will give them two days as many passengers might be airborne and might not be aware of these recent guidelines. 

"To 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 civic body stated.

As per the latest guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, random sampling of incoming international passengers at all airports has been mandated from December 1. However, the Centre has limited the sampling to 2 percent of travellers, apart from mandatory RT-PCR test of all passengers from 'at risk' countries.

(With agency inputs)

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