MUMBAI: International passengers from Europe,
UK,
Middle East, South Africa and Brazil will no longer have to undergo the mandatory week-long
institutional quarantine on arrival here if they have received both doses of
Covid vaccine,
BMC said in an order issued on Saturday.
Apart from the vaccinated lot, the new norm gives exemption from institutional quarantine to six other categories of passengers, including those aged over 65, women in advanced stage of pregnancy and passengers with serious illnesses.
Under norms passed on January 20, all passengers arriving from or transiting from those destinations had to undergo mandatory institutional quarantine for seven days followed by seven days of home quarantine on arrival here. The January order had no room for exemption.
Under the new order, exemption from week-long institutional quarantine has been granted to those mentioned above and others, like both parents accompanying children aged below five. Passengers with serious illnesses that require immediate medical attention, such as cancer, severe physical disability, mental illness and cerebral palsy can skip quarantine if they have supporting medical documents.
Passengers facing extreme family distress like father, mother, son, daughter in critical condition (on death bed), serious accident in family, death of immediate family member too will be exempted from institutional quarantine if they provide “convincing documents’’ to airport staff, said the order.
Medical professionals who intend to travel for life-saving surgery or attend to critical patients are exempted from institutional quarantine if they furnish proof from the hospital where they are to perform the surgery or provide medical service. .