New norms for international arriving passengers get going at the Mumbai airport – Times of India

MUMBAI: Based on the countries they have flown in from, passengers arriving at Mumbai airport are now segregated for further testing, keeping in line with the latest central government norms issued to track the Omicron variant.
The good news for passengers who need to undergo a Rapid RT-PCR is that the airport has reduced the rate of this test from Rs 4500 to Rs 3900. The new rates came into effect on Saturday.
On Friday, a total of 6732 international passengers landed at the Mumbai airport. Out of this 969 international arrival passengers underwent RT-PCR test of which 214 passengers took the standard RT-PCR test and 755 passengers opted for Rapid PCR test, said MIAL.
Passengers arriving from countries identified by the government as ‘at-risk such as those in Europe including the United Kingdom and then South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Brazil, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel are deboarded on priority to undergo a PCR test on arrival, said MIAL Dedicated corridors and counters have been created for these passengers, said the airport “The passengers are required to wait for their test results before leaving or taking a connecting flight,” said MIAL.
But those arriving from South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe or passengers who have visited any of these 3 countries in the last 15 days before arrival in Maharashtra have to undergo a mandatory week-long hotel quarantine after undergoing an RT-PCR test at the airport. A second test needs to be done at the end of the quarantine period. If tested negative, they can leave but have to undergo another week of home quarantine.
Travellers from countries excluding those at risk are allowed to leave the airport. Under the norms, they need to self-monitor their health for 14 days’ post-arrival. But a small percentage (2% of the total flight passengers) of these are required to undergo RT-PCR test post-arrival testing at random at the airport on arrival. “The 2% of such travellers in each flight are identified by the airlines concerned (preferably passengers from different countries). Such travellers are escorted by the airline to the RT-PCR testing area on arrival,” said MIAL.
“Children under 5 years of age are exempted from both pre-and post-arrival testing. However, if found symptomatic for Covid on arrival, they shall undergo testing and treated as per laid down protocol,” said MIAL.
MIAL said it has set up 100 registration counters and 60 sampling booths including 100 Rapid PCR machines. If any of the PCR tests are positive, the BMC or state authorities move the passenger concerned to a Covid treatment facility. The samples of such passengers are also collected for genomic sequencing.