591 passengers from UK land in Mumbai in three flights

Mumbai: As many as 591 passengers landed in Mumbai in three flights from the UK on Tuesday, a civic official said, adding none of them has been found symptomatic so far.

While 299 have been sent to various hotels for the mandatory quarantine, 292 are at the airport, the official said.

“With reports of distinct phylogenetic cluster of coronavirus detected and rapidly growing in UK, all flights originating from UK to India have been suspended temporarily as per orders of GoI,” the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation tweeted.

“In order to prevent spread of the new mutant, BMC has issued the following orders: All passengers arriving from UK will undergo mandatory institutional quarantine at their own cost, in the nearby hotel for 7 days. Symptomatic passengers will be shifted to Seven Hills Hospital. Passenger will pay for the RT-PCR test to be conducted between the fifth and seventh day.

“If tested negative, passenger would be discharged with 7 days mandatory home quarantine. Positive asymptomatic patients will be quarantined at the hotel or COVID19 hospital for 14 days. Transport arrangements for passengers will be made by BEST,” the BMC tweeted.

The Central government on Monday said all UK-India flights will be suspended from December 23 to December 31 in view of the emergence of a new coronavirus strain in that country.

It also said all passengers coming from UK on Monday and Tuesday would be compulsorily tested for coronavirus on arrival at airports.