Covid-19: 600 flyers from London land in Mumbai, over 300 quarantined – Times of India

MUMBAI: About six hundred passengers landed in Mumbai from London on three flights in the early hours of Tuesday, but only about two hundred and thirty out of these were allowed to go home from the airport. Those allowed to go home were residents of other states. Those staying in Maharashtra – over 300 passengers — were sent to a hotel for a week-long quarantine as mandated by the state government late on Monday.
This is not the first time this year that international passengers have been caught unawares by the sudden decisions taken by governments to check the spread of the novel coronavirus. But it’s perhaps the first time that a plane load of passengers were divided based on their residential addresses.
Kapil Patil, a London resident, was one of the people whose family was hit by the sudden imposition of institutional quarantine for UK passengers. His wife was travelling with their four-monthold child. The duo was stuck at the airport for over eight hours after the flight landed. Since she stayed in Kalyan and not out of Maharashtra, she was sent to seven-day hotel quarantine. In desperation, Patil tweeted for help, seeking a relaxation of norms by allowing her home quarantine. “My child is crying too much,” he tweeted.
An airport source said that the sudden requirement to segregate passengers based on their home addresses led to long queues of passengers from London. On Tuesday, the BMC issued fresh guidelines under which passengers arriving from Europe and the Middle East will have to undergo seven days of compulsory institutional quarantine at designated hotels.
“They will be tested between the 5th and 7th day, and if their RT-PCR test report is negative, they will be allowed to go home. They will however be advised to undergo seven days of home quarantine,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health).
Deputy municipal commissioner Anil Wankhede said that passengers who land in Mumbai but are residents of states other than Maharashtra, who have onward flights, will be allowed to take their connecting flights provided they are carrying a recent negative RT-PCR test report with them. “The hotel rates range from Rs 1,000 to Rs 4,500 per night per room, and this price includes three meals and one evening tea. People can choose the hotels based on their affordability. We have earmarked enough rooms. We have arrivals of 2,000 passengers from Europe and the Middle East every day,” Wankhede said.