Maharashtra, especially Mumbai, has had a pretty strict way of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic during the second wave, which was applauded by many, including yours truly. However, it seems, that the same zeal is not being appreciated during the discovery of the Omicron variant. First, Mumbai mandated a strict institutional quarantine for everyone arriving from at-risk countries with multiple RT-PCR tests, which eventually was rescinded and now, only arrivals from three countries are sent into quarantine.

A peep inside the Quarantine facilities at Byculla

Yesterday, Shayamal Vallabhjee arrived back into Mumbai from South Africa, and found himself being led to the Institutional Quarantine facility being operated by the Mumbai authorities in Byculla.

Arrived at Mumbai Airport & was escorted to this quarantine facility for inter arrivals. 4 x N- Covid Tests in 24 Hrs, 60K Hotel Reservation for Quarantine + my home is here.
Told to come wait here for an hour.
5 hours later I’m told I can’t leave for 8 days. @AUThackeray @mybmc pic.twitter.com/hQ4gVI9K60

— Shayamal (@shayamalv) December 10, 2021

Now, arrivals from South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe are supposed to be quarantined on arrival for seven days. But they can choose to head to a hotel or if they deem fit into the quarantine facility operated by the authorities free of cost.  Shayamal’s own hotel booking does not count for quarantine, since the booking needs to be made on arrival at Mumbai with BMC being kept in the loop so that they know where would you be put up and so on, but he claims to have a booking in the tweet upstream regardless. However, he shares pictures of the Quarantine facility which look like they were clearly not expecting him there.

So, that does not look like somewhere where anyone should be made to quarantine. But Mumbai’s BMC has questioned this version of events, and tweeted out their own pictures to show how the quarantine should look like. They call the other version as fake information.

Dear passengers, only 300 out of 1000 beds at the Byculla accommodation set-up is in use due to low occupancy. Some misleading pictures of portion not in use is being circulated. Please avoid sharing any further. Complete care of food & hygiene is being ensured #SayNoToFakeInfo pic.twitter.com/S3bCIKeKKo

— माझी Mumbai, आपली BMC (@mybmc) December 10, 2021

In case you can’t see them, here is the BMC version uploaded as well.

While that does not look very comfortable either, but it does look better than the images from the original poster.

If you’d like to stay in a hotel instead, here is the list of all the hotels available to quarantine, along with the prices on a per night basis. Remember, you can’t pick a hotel pre-departure. You can arrive in Mumbai and ask for your preferred hotel, and if they have it they can assign it to you. BMC monitors the whole process end to end.

           

Bottomline

It looks like those who arrive in Mumbai from various High Risk countries will either have to head to the quarantine centre of Mumbai for a free 8-night stay, or you can pick from one of the above mentioned hotels and sign up on arrival in India.

Is anyone serving an institutional quarantine in Mumbai? Do share your experience

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