Amid rising COVID-19 cases in Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on Saturday, announced that passengers arriving from or transiting through the UK, Europe, Middle East, South Africa will be required to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for seven days, followed by seven days home quarantine.
"Under the current Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) with regard to compulsory institutional quarantine, the passengers arriving from or transiting through U.K., Europe, Middle East, South Africa and Brazil are required to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for 7 days followed by 7 days of home quarantine," BMC said in its order.
However, the BMC exempted a certain category of international passengers arriving at the Mumbai airport from institutional quarantine.
Elderly passengers above 65 years of age, pregnant woman in an advanced stage of pregnancy, both parents accompanying children below five years of age are among the passengers who may be exempted from institutional quarantine, the BMC said in its order.
According to the new norms, here's the full list of the people who are exempted from institutional quarantine:
1. Elderly passengers above 65 years of age.
2. Pregnant woman in advanced stage of pregnancy.
3. Both Parents accompanying children below 5 years of age.
4. Passengers having serious illness and require immediate medical attention such as cancer, severe physical disability, mental illness, cerebral palsy on production of supporting documents and medical conditions that need admission in medical institutions immediately.
5. Extreme family distress condition i.e. father, mother, son, daughter in critical condition (On death bed), severe accident in family, death of immediate family member.
6. Passengers who have completed their both Covid-19 vaccine dosage.
7. Medical Professionals that intend to travel for performing life-saving surgery/attending critical patients.
"Passengers from above categories may be considered an exemption from institutional quarantine/quarantine, subject to providing required documents to the satisfaction of In-charge Officer at the Airport. The exempted passengers shall strictly follow quarantine rules and regulations and shall be liable for appropriate action for any breach of quarantine rules," the civic body said.
On Saturday, Mumbai reported 2982 new COVID-19 cases taking its caseload to 3,55,897, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said. While seven new deaths took the fatality count in the country's financial capital to 11,572.