On Wednesday, December 30, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) decided to quarantine returnees from Europe, the Middle East and South Africa for free at its jumbo Byculla COVID-19 centre.
As per reports, the passengers landing in the city were taking detours by landing in other states and then entering Mumbai, stating that it was difficult for them to complete the mandatory seven-day quarantine at hotels due to financial limitations. According to a report in Hindustan Times, the passengers would take a flight to Goa or Kerela and then enter Mumbai by road in order to evade the compulsory institutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, earlier on December 30, Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri had stated that the Centre has extended the temporary suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom till January 7, 2021, due to the new strain of the coronavirus. Last week, India had suspended all flights from Britain until the end of the month with the new variant of the COVID-19 getting detected in the UK which triggered widespread concern and travel restrictions across the globe.
In view of the situation, the civic body had decided to impose the mandatory institutional quarantine for people flying to the city. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, BMC, speaking about the same, said, “We have opened our Byculla jumbo centre for institutional quarantining of incoming passengers from the Middle East and Europe. This facility will be kept for those who claim they cannot afford to quarantine themselves at hotels.”
He further added, “There are several professionalism service-class citizens who are returning back and they have requested institutional quarantine facilities, instead of hotels. Hence, this facility will be available for free, considering our aim is to ensure that passengers do not exploit loopholes to escape quarantine. We, at BMC, are requesting citizens to act responsibly.”
Share
Tweet
