COVID-19 in Mumbai: BMC identifies 1,500 old passengers for testing

A passenger being screened for COVID-19 at the Mumbai international airport on Tuesday night. Pics/Sameer Markande

After the state government issued new directives asking authorities to carry out RT-PCR test of passengers who arrived from England in the past 30 days, the civic body is gearing up to test 1,550 passengers. The move comes as a precautionary measure in view of the new virus strain found in the UK.

Staff in PPE wait to test international passengers at the airport on Tuesday night

The airport health officer has shared with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) a list of 1,550 passengers who arrived in the city between November 25 and December 23. The list is being shared with districts and municipal corporations.

Each ward's war rooms and medical health officers will ensure that all the travellers are tracked and tested. Those who arrived about a month ago, too, will be checked in case they tested positive for the Coronavirus.

Quarantine at SevenHills
Officials of the respective civic bodies will contact the passengers and get them tested for the novel Coronavirus. Passengers who will test positive for the Coronavirus will be quarantined at SevenHills Hospital and their samples will also be sent to NIV.

The contacts of the positive cases will also be compulsorily quarantined at identified institutions and not allowed home quarantine. They will be tested between the fifth and the 10th day since coming in contact with the COVID-19 positive person. Civic officials will also identify those who tested positive for the virus within this period. Their samples will be sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune for genome sequencing, which will help identify the new variant if there's any.

Follow up for 28 days
Moreover, civic officials will keep in touch with passengers, who test negative, for 28 days since their arrival. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, confirmed to mid-day, "We have so far received a list of 1,550 international passengers and we'll be testing them all."

A civic official requesting anonymity said, "It is more of a precautionary exercise, as all travellers carried a COVID-19 negative report at the time of arrival in the city. And those without one were tested at the airport. But in case, if even one person was left out, it could pose a problem. So, we will be rigorously carrying out this drive."