The Maharashtra Government has issued SOPs for passengers landing from Europe, South Africa and Middle East. All the airports and seaports to be alerted to the possible threat of the spread of a new strain of coronavirus, the flow of passengers should be such that they should not in any way get mixed with the passengers coming from other flights.
The government has said that all these activities be done very aptly without raising any panic or any differential behaviour towards the passengers. The psychological aspect of the situation be managed very diligently to improve the compliance of the staff and the passengers towards following the SOPs.
Utmost care should be taken towards increasing the awareness of the passengers and the airport staff to the new threat.
According to the SOPs, all passengers will be screened for the presence of symptoms and if found symptomatic, shall be subjected to RT-PCR sample testing with all the necessary precautions. These symptomatic passengers shall be sent to identified hospitals in the city and get admitted and should be tested accordingly.
All other passengers shall undergo 14 days of mandatory paid institutional quarantine at arrival city. They shall not be allowed outside the designated quarantine facility before 14 days in any condition. All passengers should complete 14 days of quarantine and should be RT-PCR negative before discharge.
The passengers shall be transported along with their luggage to the designated hotel for institutional quarantine. Paid transport shall be arranged by the nodal officer with the help of RTO. The quarantine facilities where these passengers will stay should strictly follow all the guidelines so that there should not be any intermingling of the passengers within the facility. Moreover, the passengers shall be monitored daily for the development of any symptoms through Aarogya Setu App or by the health team. In case any passenger develops symptoms of Covid-19, he/she should be shifted to a specially designated hospital for treating the new strain of virus.