New guidelines introduced for international travelers landing in Mumbai (File)
Bombay:
Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has forced RT-PCR testing for international passengers arriving at the city’s airport from September 3 after the discovery of a new coronavirus strain – C.1.2.
“Mandatory RT-PCR test for international passengers arriving at Bombay airport from the United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe in the arriving at the airport at its own cost, on waking up to the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19, ”the BMC said in a statement.
Under the new guidelines, the provision of institutional quarantine for international passengers traveling by air has been rejected. However, some new guidelines for international travelers have been introduced.
The new Covid C.1.2 variant, which was first reported in South Africa, has so far not been found in India, government sources told the ANI news agency.
Maria Van Kerkhove, technical head of the Covid-19 World Health Organization on Tuesday, said variant C.1.2 has been found in at least six countries.
According to the World Health Organization, researchers from South Africa first presented their findings on variant C.1.2 to the WHO working group on the evolution of the virus on 21 July.
The new variant was first reported in South Africa in May. Researchers have described variant C.1.2, which has 40-59 more mutations than the original Wuhan virus. Scientists from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP) are participating in the research.