Mumbai: As many as 827 Indians who landed at the Mumbai international airport from abroad so far since Sunday have been kept under institutional quarantine as per the guidelines for COVID-19, a civic official said. However, none of them has been shifted to any isolation facility, he said.
Isolation separates sick people with a contagious disease from those who are not sick, while quarantine separates and restricts the movement of people who were exposed to a contagious disease to see if they become sick.
So far, four flights have landed in the city – one each from London, Singapore and Manila on Sunday and one from San Francisco on Monday, a BMC official said.
Excluding the crew members, the flight from San Francisco had 105 passengers onboard, and the flights from London, Singapore and Manila carried 329,243 and 150 passengers, respectively, he said.
“None of them has been shifted to an isolation facility,” the official said. Out of the total passengers who landed here, those belonging to Mumbai were kept under mandatory institutional quarantine in hotels near the airport, while those hailing from other cities were taken to their respective places by state transport buses and tourist cabs, sources said.
The civic body has reserved over 3,340 rooms in 88 hotels for keeping these passengers brought back to India under ‘Mission Vande Bharat’, under institutional quarantine.
Only passengers with coronavirus symptoms like fever, cough, cold and breathlessness will be shifted to isolation facilities, whereas those without any such symptoms will be kept under mandatory institutional quarantine, as per the BMC. After landing at the airport here, all passengers were screened and also sensitised about coronavirus, the BMC official said. –
