Civic officials said many international travellers must have returned to Pimpri-Chinchwad from Mumbai by road. (File)The Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation has appealed to those who have returned from UK and other European countries to immediately report to the nearest civic hospital, the YCM hospital, or get in touch with the civic administration.
“Those who have returned from European countries, especially UK, in the last 15-20 days should immediately report to civic officials,” Municipal Commissioner Shravan Hardikar said on Monday.
The appeal follows the imposition of night curfew in the state and directives from the government for institutional quarantine of those who have returned from European countries, in the wake of the spread of a new strain of coronavirus in the UK.
“We are waiting for guidelines from the state government after it issued orders for imposition of night curfew and institutional quarantine of fliers coming to Maharashtra,” Hardikar said.
Civic officials said those who returned from European and Middle-East countries will be put in institutional quarantine. Those who have returned from other countries will be home-quarantined.
Civic officials said many international travellers must have returned to Pimpri-Chinchwad from Mumbai by road, as international flights to Pune airports are not operating. “Since only flights to and fro Dubai are operating, we think the fliers must have returned to Pimpri-Chinchwad by road from Mumbai. We request all such people to get in touch with us,” Hardikar said.
Hardikar said they have a bed capacity of 3,000 ready. “We have adequate capacity for institutional quarantine at our facilities at Mhalunge, Balewadi and Gharkul. Besides, we also have hotel facilities ready for quarantining foreign passengers.”
PCMC Additional Health chief Dr Pavan Salve said,”International fliers should either contact the nearest civic hospital or the health department at PCMC headquarters.”
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ZP CEO Ayush Prasad said they too are urging fliers who have returned from European and Middle East countries to report to the administration for institutional quarantine. Supporting night curfew, Prasad said, “The government has moved swiftly in the wake of the rapid spread of the new strain of virus in the UK. The imposition of night curfew will help check spread of COVID. There is a scientific basis for the imposition of night curfew. People move and come in contact with different places and surfaces. The virus does not last beyond a few hours on most surfaces. So if a curfew is in place overnight, it curbs the spread of the virus.”