New guidelines for int’l fliers arriving in city
CIVIC CENTRES GIVING FAKE JAB CERT: CONG MLA
MUMBAI: International passengers arriving from or transiting through the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle Eastern countries, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe will now have to take a mandatory self-paid RT-PCR test on arrival at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA), Mumbai. This new rule comes into effect from midnight, September 3. The cost of the test will be ₹600.
International passengers travelling from the United States or other countries except the ones mentioned above who will exit at the Mumbai airport or will take a connecting flight will have to produce a negative RT-PCR report, done within 72 hours before the journey.
The capacity of testing at the airport has been increased to 600 tests per hour and requisite arrangements have been made for implementation of the guidelines.
The statement was released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday, as per guidelines issued by Government of India for international passengers.
Congress MLA Zeeshan Siddique on Thursday alleged that bogus Covid-19 vaccine certificates are being generated for people who did not take jabs by civic vaccination centres at H East ward. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “I have asked the concerned to investigate into the matter.”
The decision has been taken in view of more transmissible variants of Sars-cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
While institutional quarantine is not required anymore as per the new guidelines, all international passengers must give a self-declaration form with an undertaking to home quarantine for 14 days. These forms need to be submitted to officers deployed at CSMIA.
Exemptions granted as per earlier guidelines for fully vaccinated passengers or passengers above the age of 65 years has been done away with.