Guwahati: The Union Minister of Health Mansukh Mandaviya declared on Saturday that travellers arriving from five countries including China, will henceforth be required to submit to an RT-PCR test.
“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,” Health Minister Mandaviya said in a conversation with ANI.
He added that overseas travellers travelling from these Asian nations would also be required to fill out the Air Suvidha form to certify their current health status.
Mansukh Mandaviya, the union health minister noted the mounting COVID cases around the world and stated on Friday that the Center and States must cooperate “tandem” and in a “collaborative spirit” as they did during earlier outbreaks.
Mandaviya stated that the nation must be aware and completely prepared for COVID management while presiding over a virtual conference on Friday with the state’s health ministers, Principal Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries, and Information Commissioners.
The meeting was held to review public health preparedness for containment and management of COVID-19 and the status of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign in light of the recent upsurge in cases in some countries, including China, Japan, Brazil, and the United States. Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar and NITI Aayog member V K Paul attended.
In light of the impending holiday season, Manadaviya has also emphasised the significance of public awareness efforts about adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.
He requested that the state health ministers personally oversee and assess the readiness of the infrastructure and make sure that there is a sufficient supply of vital medications.
Notably, in June 2022, the Union Health Ministry published “Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19,” which calls for the early identification, isolation, testing, and prompt management of suspected and confirmed cases in order to identify and control outbreaks of new SARS-CoV-2 variants.
In light of the escalating COVID cases in China and other nations, India would start randomly testing 2% of all international travellers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya announced to Parliament on Thursday.
On Saturday morning, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reported that India had had 201 new COVID-19 infections in the previous day.
The number of cases now in progress in the nation is 3,397 or 0.01 percent of all cases.
98.8% of cases are currently being recovered. The number of recoveries increased to 183 in the previous day, bringing the total to 4,41,42,791.
The weekly positivity rate was 0.14 percent compared to a 0.15 percent daily positivity rate.
In light of the recent spike in coronavirus infections in several nations, including China, Japan, South Korea, France and the United States, Mandaviya informed parliament on Thursday that the government has begun random RT-PCR sampling among travellers arriving at national airports.