The Maharashtra government on Thursday has revised its travel guidelines for all incoming passengers. This comes a day after the Centre wrote to the state saying its order was in divergence with the Covi-19 SoPs and guidelines issued by the Union government.

Under the latest guidelines, passengers from three “high-risk” nations will undergo institutional quarantine under the revised airport rules in Maharashtra in view of Covid’s Omicron variant. However, Passengers from “at risk” nations have to follow central rules.

The “high-risk” nations are South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. Passengers from these nations “shall be deboarded on priority…. (and) sent to mandatory 7 days’ institutional quarantine,” the new rules stated.

The rule will also apply to people who visited these nations anytime within 15 days ahead of their arrival, and any passenger who are symptomatic.

After completion of institutional quarantine, the passengers will take an RTPCR test and if the result is negative, will undergo seven days of home quarantine.

Passengers from “at risk” nations no longer need institutional quarantine upon arrival.

For domestic travellers, either the passenger should be fully vaccinated or have a negative RT-PCR report for which the test is carried out within 72 hours before boarding the flight.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Maharashtra government had mandated seven-day institutional quarantine for travellers arriving in the state from ‘at-risk’ countries. Following this,  the Union health ministry yesterday sent a letter to the Maharashtra government, urging it to align with its guidelines.

As of today, more than 50 nations have had a brush with Omicron or are “at risk”. The list includes European nations like UK, Germany, Spain, Belgium, and Italy. Besides, South Africa, Botswana, Israel, Hong Kong and Japan have confirmed cases of Omicron.