COVID Tests Mandatory For International Passengers Coming To Mumbai

Following the identification of a new strain of the coronavirus - C.1.2 - Mumbai's civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has made RT-PCR tests mandatory for foreign travellers arriving at the city airport from September 3. The BMC stated that for international passengers arriving at Mumbai Airport from the UK, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe upon arrival at the airport will have to undergo the tests at their own cost, in wake of the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19.

According to the new guidelines, the provision of institutional quarantine for international flight passengers has been eliminated under the new rules. However, certain new restrictions for foreign travellers have been implemented.

According to government sources, the new Covid variation C.1.2, which was first reported in South Africa, is yet to be discovered in India.

On Tuesday, Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical director for Covid-19, stated that the C.1.2 version has been discovered in at least six countries. According to the World Health Organisation, on July 21  researchers in South Africa submitted their results on the C.1.2 variant to the WHO Virus Evolution Working Group for the first time.

In May, the new variety was identified in South Africa. The C.1.2 variant, which contains 40-59 mutations more than the original Wuhan virus, has been described by researchers. Scientists from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform are involved in the study (KRISP).