Maharashtra: 7 days’ institutional quarantine now for those coming from Europe, South Africa and the Middle East

Mumbai: Maharashtra has reduced the institutional quarantine period to seven days for flyers coming in from Europe, South Africa and the Middle East, if they do not test positive for the Covid-19 virus. This will be followed by seven additional days of compulsory home quarantine if the flyer’s test reports turn out to be negative.

Earlier, the state government had mandated a blanket 14-day institutional quarantine, irrespective of a negative report.

“On arrival, no RT-PCR tests would be conducted for asymptomatic passengers, who would be taken to institutional quarantine/hotel. However, these people would have to undergo RT-PCR tests on the 5-7th day,” the state government said in an order issued on Thursday.


Once the flyers’ reports turn out to be negative, they will be sent to strict home quarantine for another seven days, it said.

“If the results turn out to be positive and the patient is asymptomatic, then he or she would have to continue the institutional quarantine for the 14-day period,” it said.

Those who show symptoms will have to undergo RT-PCR tests at the airport itself.

The development comes as Maharashtra is busy contact-tracing passengers who had flown in from the United Kingdom between November 25 and December 23.

A 28-year-old man who arrived from the UK on December 15 has tested positive for the virus and his samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Pune to further test whether he is carrying the mutated virus strain that is now prevalent in the UK.

Meanwhile, officials have fanned out to different parts of the state to trace others who had come from the UK. In Kalyan alone, 55 people who entered the country between November and December and efforts are under way to trace them.