Mumbai: The Uddhav Thackeray-led Maharashtra government has tightened the rules for international passengers flying into Mumbai and other airports of the state. As per the latest order issued by chief secretary Sitaram Kunte all international flyers, even those who have taken both the doses of vaccine required to hold an RT-PCR negative test not older than 72 hours. Till now, they (international flyers) had to follow two sets of entry guidelines— issued by the Centre as well as the state.
The fresh order by Kunte has also given relief to flyers arriving in the state from South Africa, European and middle east countries. Earlier, people coming from these nations will have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine and RT-PCR tests, but now they will not be required to follow extra restrictions as they will be treated as any other international flyer.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra has reported 4,654 new coronavirus cases and 170 fresh deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the infection tally to 64,47,442 and the toll to 1,36,900. The official said 3,301 patients were discharged from hospitals across the state in the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of recovered cases to 62,55,451. Maharashtra now has 51,574 active cases.
On the other hand, the Centre, ahead of upcoming festivals in Maharashtra, has advised the state to consider imposing local restrictions on these festivals and mass gatherings to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
In a letter to the Maharashtra chief secretary, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said even though the trajectory of daily new cases has shown a decline over the last month, there are some districts in Maharashtra which are showing early signs of an upsurge in COVID-19 cases and test positivity
Bhushan said the directions were issued under the Disaster Management Act, 2005 by the Home Ministry for focussed containment measures. “In light of this order, and in view of mass events and public gatherings expected during celebration of upcoming festivals (including Dahi Handi and Ganpati Utsav) in Maharashtra, it is advised that the state may consider imposing and enforcing local restrictions in public observation of these festivals and mass gatherings,” Bhushan added.
