New Delhi: Those coming to the Mumbai city from South Africa, where a new COVID-19 variant ‘Omicron’ has been first detected, would need to follow additional measures on their arrival.
“Passengers will have to go through testing and quarantine at the airport, while some random samples will also be sent for genome sequencing to check if the passengers are carrying the new coronavirus variant”, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar announced on Saturday.
“People are worried about the new Covid variant. Those people coming from South Africa will be quarantined and genome sequencing will be done with thorough checks,” she said.
Kishori Pednekar added, “Christmas is round the corner and many people from around the world will come to Maharashtra and Mumbai to their families. The BMC is taking all precautionary measures. This variant has become a matter of concern in many countries and hence, we need to be prepared.”
However, no formal press release has been issued by the Mumbai airport or the BMC regarding the additional measures yet.
Earlier, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare added Hong Kong and Israel to the list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing considering the detection of new COVID variant ‘Omicron’ in South Africa.
Countries from where the travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India are South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Israel, Hong Kong as well as countries in Europe including the UK.