Passengers from South Africa to undergo quarantine at Mumbai airport

Mumbai has taken several steps to check the new Covid variant-Omicron. Passengers arriving from South Africa will be quarantined in Mumbai. Genome sequencing of passengers, if found positive, will also be done. Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar on Friday said that there are concerns in Mumbai about the new variant of coronavirus. There is no restriction on outbound flights in any way. But this decision has been taken keeping in view past experience, Pednekar said. She added, Christmas is round the corner and many people from around the world will come to Maharashtra and Mumbai to their families. The BMC is taking all precautionary measures. She urged the citizens to continue wearing face masks, using sanitiser and maintaining social distancing.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat government has made it mandatory for travellers arriving at the state's airports from Europe, UK, Brazil, South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and Hong Kong to undergo RT-PCR Covid-19 tests. The WHO classified the variant as a “highly transmissible virus of concern”, the same category that includes the predominant delta variant of the coronavirus. Thailand is the latest to join the growing list, banning entry of people from eight African countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.