The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has made seven-day home isolation mandatory for those coming from abroad. The decision comes in the wake of renewed concerns of Covid-19 in the wake of detection of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus in many countries.
The AMC has reached out to more than 400 persons who have arrived from overseas recently and asked them to stay in home isolation for seven days. The civic body has warned of initiating action under the Epidemic Act in case of non-compliance with the requirement. These persons have also been asked to undergo an RT-PCR test upon completion of the home isolation period.
“The Covid-19 situation in Ahmedabad has improved significantly and is under control, but we are being extra cautious because of the new strain of the virus,” said an AMC official.
The move comes days after the state government mandated mandates RT-PCR testing for travellers landing at the airports in the state from Europe, UK, Brazil, South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and Hong Kong over the new variant concerns.
No cases of the Omicron strain, which is said to be possibly even more transmissible than the highly infectious Delta variant, have been detected in Ahmedabad or Gujarat. There are concerns the current vaccines may not be as effective against the strain, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has classified as a variant of concern.