BMC to call fliers 5 times a day, notify hsg society

MUMBAI: The civic body on Saturday issued standard operating procedures (SOP) to monitor passengers arriving from “at risk” countries as they undergo a seven-day home quarantine mandated by the state. The war rooms of each of the city’s 24 wards will call passengers five times a day, and notify their housing societies to ensure that they do not meet anyone during their quarantine, the SOP stated. This comes in the wake of the new variant of concern (VOC) Omicron which was first detected from southern African countries two weeks ago and has now been detected in India too, including in Kalyan-dombivli, near Mumbai.

“BMC has introduced a unique and strict home quarantine monitoring mechanism for passengers arriving in Mumbai from at-risk countries. It will be as effective as institutional quarantine. Our objective is to prevent the possible spread of the Omicron variant in Mumbai,” municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said on Saturday.

The “at-risk” list issued by the Union health ministry includes countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China and Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, and Hong Kong among others.

According to state guidelines issued on December 2, all passengers arriving from these countries will need to undergo RT-PCR tests on arrival in Mumbai; if found positive, the passenger will be put into institutional quarantine or moved to a Covid-19 hospital. Saturday’s SOP has been issued to monitor those passengers who test negative on arrival.

As a further precautionary measure, the state also designated three of these countries — Zimbabwe, Bostwana and South Africa — as “high risk” and passengers arriving from here (or with a travel history of a fortnight to these countries) will have to undergo a week-long institutional quarantine even if they test negative on arrival. Accordingly, passengers from these countries will not be given the option of home quarantine.

The SOP issued on Saturday directed the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) to send a daily list of international passengers arriving in Mumbai in the preceding 24 hours from high risk and at-risk countries and those who have visited these countries in the last 15 days to the Disaster Management Cell. The civic body has sought the names of only those passengers who reside in the geographical area of Mumbai.

The disaster management cell would send the list to all 24 ward war rooms at 10 am. Following this, the civic health department staff will make calls to monitor and track the passengers and conduct contact tracing.

“Ward war room shall call all the passengers under home quarantine and politely inform them that they are in 7 days home quarantine. They shall provide the passengers with proper information on Covid-19 and counsel them for concerns. Ward war room shall ensure that all passengers follow the home quarantine protocols by strictly calling them up 5 times a day and monitor their health status,” the SOP read.

“The ward war room shall notify to housing society bearers of all such passengers who are under home quarantine. They shall ensure that these passengers strictly follow home quarantine and no visitors shall be allowed to these households. The housing society office bearers should notify any violations to the BMC,” it stated. The SOP further mandated that the passenger’s housing society would be notified. “Any passenger violating the home quarantine protocol shall be liable for legal action under the relevant sections of the Epidemic Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2007,” the SOP stated.