India has announced mandatory RT-PCR test for passengers coming in from five countries.
“The RT-PCR test to be mandatory for international arrivals from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand. On arrival, if any passenger from these countries is found symptomatic or tests positive for COVID-19 infection, then he/she will be put under quarantine,” the country’s Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday in a conversation with Asian News International (ANI).
Mandaviya added that the Air Suvidha form is also compulsory for international passengers arriving from these Asian countries. The Air Suvidha form is filled to declare the current health status.
According to the report, “taking note of the rising cases of COVID globally, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday said that the Centre and States need to work in “tandem” and in a “collaborative spirit” as was done during the previous surges.”
In addition, Union Health Ministry has already issued “Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19” in June 2022.
The guidelines calls for early detection, isolation, testing and timely management of suspected and confirmed cases to detect and contain outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants, the report said.
India will also begin random testing of 2 percent of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19 from Saturday, December 24, Mandaviya told the parliament on Thursday.
The latest move is followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi chairing a high-level meeting on Friday to assess the Covid-19 situation in the country.
“The meeting reviewed the preparedness of health infrastructure and logistics, status of the vaccination campaign in the country, the emergence of new Covid-19 variants and their public health implications for the country,” an official readout of the meeting said.
“This high-level review meeting comes in the backdrop of a spike in Covid-19 cases in some countries.”
Modi reiterated that the pandemic is not over yet and directed officials to strengthen the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at international airports.
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