Following the identification of a new coronavirus strain, C.1.2. Mumbai’s civic authority, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), has made RT-PCR testing mandatory for foreign travelers arriving at the city airport from September 3.
“RT-PCR test mandatory for international passengers arriving at Mumbai Airport from UK, Europe, Middle East, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe upon arrival at the airport at their own cost, in wake of the discovery of a new strain of Covid-19,” the BMC said in a statement.
The provision of institutional quarantine for foreign travellers travelling by plane has been eliminated under the new standards. For overseas travellers, however, certain additional rules have been implemented.
According to official authorities, the new Covid variation C.1.2, which was originally reported in South Africa, has yet to be discovered in India.
The World Health Organization’s technical director for Covid-19, Maria Van Kerkhove, stated on Tuesday that the C.1.2 version has been discovered in at least six nations.
On July 21, researchers in South Africa submitted their results on the C.1.2 variation to the WHO Virus Evolution Working Group for the first time, according to the World Health Organization.
The new variant was originally discovered in May in South Africa. The C.1.2 variety contains 40-59 mutations more than the original Wuhan virus, according to researchers. Scientists from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform are working on the project (KRISP).
