Rapid RT-PCR Must at Mumbai Airport for Passengers Coming from At-risk, High-risk Countries, UAE

Amid a surge in COVID-19 cases, the Mumbai civic body has made rapid RT-PCR test mandatory for the passengers coming from at-risk and high-risk countries and the UAE at the international airport here, a senior civic official said on Wednesday.

A day earlier confusion was created due to misinterpretation of revised guidelines by a civic official who had said that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had made rapid RT-PCR test compulsory for all the international passengers landing at the Mumbai airport, sources said. The guidelines, issued last week, came into effect on Monday.

"All international passengers coming from at-risk and high-risk countries and the UAE will be asked to take a rapid RT-PCR test. If positive, they will be asked to take routine RT-PCR and ask to wait for results," Kiran Dighavkar, assistant municipal commissioner, BMC, tweeted. Presently, 13 countries are listed in the 'at risk' category. Passengers arriving from the UAE will also have to undergo rapid RT-PCR tests on arrival as per rules.

On Tuesday, Mumbai reported 10,860 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily count after April 7, 2021, while two more patients succumbed to the infection, as per the civic body. The passengers found positive for coronavirus in the rapid RT-PCR test will have to undergo a regular RT-PCR test at the Mumbai international airport itself, as per the revised order of the BMC. "If the routine RT-PCR test is positive, then the sample will be sent immediately for genome sequencing and the passenger will be sent to institutional quarantine," the order said.

Passengers who test negative will be allowed to leave the airport, but they will need to observe mandatory home quarantine for seven days. "If this sample (routine RT-PCR) test is negative, then the concerned passenger will be allowed to go home for mandatory home quarantine for a total period of seven days," as per the revised guidelines.

All symptomatic passengers testing positive at the airport will be admitted to Seven Hills Hospital, while asymptomatic passengers will be admitted to the jumbo COVID-19 facilities in the Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) or Kanjurmarg. If any symptomatic passenger prefers a private hospital, he/she will be shifted to the Bombay Hospital or Breach Candy Hospital, while the asymptomatic patients with similar preferences will be transferred to linked hotels on their expenditure, the guidelines said.

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