In the wake of the confusion over the different set of guidelines for air passengers arriving in Maharashtra by the State Government and the Centre, the former on Thursday issued a set of guidelines clarifying all domestic passengers coming to the State will either have to be fully vaccinated or should carry RTPCR test certificate showing negative result within 72 hours before boarding.
The State Government categorised South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe as the “high risk countries” adding that it is a dynamic exercise based on the evolving situation of the Omicron variant and hence will be updated as required by the State Government. The State has directed authorities to follow guidelines for other countries as specified by the Centre.
The passengers will be declared high risk if they are either coming from above-mentioned countries or have visited any of them in the past 15 days before arrival.
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The passengers will be de-planed and separate counters will be arranged for them. They will have to undergo RTPCR test immediately on arrival at the international airport and seven-day institutional quarantine with second RTPCR test to be carried on the seventh day.
In case of positive result, the passengers will be shifted to the hospital. Otherwise, they will have to go for seven-day home quarantine.
Earlier in the day, Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar accepted that the guidelines issued by the State and the Centre earlier had a few differences. “But we have decided to sort that out. However, certain health safety measures need to be taken and we will ensure that those are followed,” he said.
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