Those coming from Kerala will have to get Covid negative reports

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has decided to extend travel restrictions for those coming to the state from Kerala. It has made it mandatory for travellers to carry a Covid-negative report while entering the state.

The decision on travel restrictions was taken following an observation made by a threemember team under National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) including director Dr Sujeet Singh, who was in state from Friday to Monday to take stock of the Covid-19 situation. The team pointed out that why the state is not imposing travel restrictions for travellers coming from Kerala. With a total 983,376 cases of Covid-19, Kerala has recorded the secondhighest number of Covid-19 cases across the country after Maharashtra. It still has the highest active cases — 64,346 — among all the states. On Tuesday, it recorded 5,980 cases, highest in the country.

In the past one week, the number of new infections has grown by an average of 0.6% every day, according to www.covid19india.org. Around 27,826 out of every one million people in Kerala have tested positive for coronavirus, it stated.

“Following the powers conferred under Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, in the capacity as chairperson, state executive committee, I hereby issue orders to extend the SOP (standard operating procedure) for all the passengers arriving in Maharashtra from the state of Kerala with immediate effect, after careful consideration of planning and containment areas and availability of health infrastructure for strict implementation by the concerned authorities,” states the order issued by chief secretary Sanjay Kumar on Wednesday.

“The passengers travelling in flights from Kerala will have to carry RT-PCR negative test reports before boarding and will have to produce the same on landing at airports in Maharashtra. The RT-PCR sample collection should have been done within 72 hours before the scheduled time of landing at airports in the state,” said Anoop Kumar, secretary relief and rehabilitation (additional charge). He further said, “Passengers travelling in trains will also have to produce RT-PCR negative test report, but the collection of samples should have been done within 96 hours before the scheduled arrival.”