The
emergence of the omicron variant of the coronavirus has the world worried.
While nations are taking necessary steps, including shutting down borders
completely, the states of India are figuring out guidelines for domestic air
travel. To that end, the government of Maharashtra has revised its rules.
Passengers arriving in the state will either have to be fully vaccinated or
have a negative RT-PCR result, from a test conducted within 72 hours of boarding.

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This
alteration comes a day after the Shiv Sena government issued stricter rules,
including mandatory negative RT-PCR results for all domestic travellers. The
Union Health Ministry reached out, asking the state to ensure its orders were
aligned with Central guidelines. Rajesh Tope, the Health Minister of the state,
decided to defer the rule for domestic travellers and fall in line with the Centre’s
directives.

Initially,
the Maharashtra government was unwilling to budge from its stance. When communication
from the Centre outlined that they were diverging from its guidelines, the
state government’s stance was that the Centre issued advisories, allowing
states the leeway to implement additional measures to nip the spread of the omicron
variant in the bud.

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While
the stance towards domestic travellers has softened, the Maharashtra government
is resolute in its guidelines for international travellers. These include a week-long
institutional quarantine apart from mandatory RT-PCR tests. Accordingly, they
have also identified certain high-risk countries, namely, South Africa, Botswana,
and Zimbabwe.

Currently, this is a dynamic exercise, and the list is subject to
change as the situation with the omicron variant evolves with time. Senior
officials have also added that they are monitoring the matter closely, and rules
and restrictions would be scaled down if the threat from the omicron variant does
not prove to be too much and depending on whether the current situation
improves.