Hours after the Maharashtra Government decided to screen air passengers arriving from at least 10 countries where a deadly new coronavirus variant has been detected, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday announced that all the passengers arriving here from the Omicron “high-risk nations” would undergo compulsory institutional quarantine.
Making an announcement about the civic body’s plans to quarantine all those passengers from the ten Omicron-hit countries, Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said that the BMC — in consultation with the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport — would make available a list of all the passengers who have arrived from abroad in the past 14 days to the Mumbai Metropolitan Region.
From the list, the officials will segregate the passengers arriving here from at least 10 “high risk countries” South Africa, Botswana, Brazil, China, Israel, Belgium, Hong Kong, Mauritius, New Zealand and others where the new and more dangerous Omicron had been detected.
Kakani said the BMC had taken all precautions to deal with Omicron. “Institutional segregation would be made compulsory for passengers who landed at the airport and they would not be segregated at home under any circumstances.
“If any patient of Omicron is found in any building of the city, the entire building will be sealed as a precaution,” Kakani said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Eknath Shinde directed all hospitals and their Intensive Care Units (ICUs) “to inspect and ensure that all treatment infrastructure is working well”, with sufficient number of beds, stocks of liquid medical oxygen and ventilators to tackle any eventuality.
An emergency meeting, called by Shinde, was attended by several top officials including Principal Secretary UD Bhushan Gagrani, Kakani, Collectors of Thane, Raigad, Palghar and other districts, all municipal commissioners and civic heads in the State.
Coming as it does on the heels of recession of a severe Covid-19 wave, the new Omicron variant has triggered a global scare with many countries clamping fresh air travel restrictions, world stock markets crashing and several nations imposing fresh curbs on passengers coming from these countries.
