New Delhi: Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday said RT-PCR test for the detection of COVID-19 would be made mandatory for international passengers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Any passenger from these countries found symptomatic or testing positive for coronavirus would be quarantined, Mandaviya said.
He also said filling up of the ‘Air Suvidha’ form to declare the health status will be made mandatory for passengers coming from these countries.
With China and other countries witnessing a surge in Covid cases, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday cautioned against complacency, called for a strict vigil and directed that the ongoing surveillance measures, especially at the international airports, be strengthened.
The Union health ministry has already asked the civil aviation ministry to ensure random post-arrival Covid testing at airports of 2 per cent of the passengers arriving in India in each international flight from Saturday to minimise the risk of ingress of any new variant of the coronavirus in the country.
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.
Mandaviya, while chairing a virtual meeting Friday with the health ministers of the states, Principal Secretaries, Additional Chief Secretaries and Information Commissioners, said that the country needs to be on the alert and be fully prepared for COVID management.
The meeting was held in view of the recent upsurge in cases in some countries like China, Japan, Brazil and the United States in the presence of Union Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar, NITI Aayog member V K Paul to review the public health preparedness for containment and management of COVID-19 and progress of national COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
Manadaviya has also stressed the importance of public awareness campaigns regarding adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour in view of the upcoming festive season.
He asked the State Health Ministers to personally monitor and review the preparedness of all infrastructure and ensure adequate stock of essential medicines.
Notably, Union Health Ministry has already issued “Operational Guidelines for Revised Surveillance Strategy in context of COVID-19” in June 2022 which 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.
On Thursday Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Parliament, India will start randomly testing two per cent of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19 in view of rising cases of COVID in China and other countries.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare informed on Saturday morning informed that in the past 24 hours, India recorded 201 new COVID-19 infections.
The country’s active caseload currently stands at 3,397 which accounts for 0.01 per cent of the total cases.
The recovery rate currently is at 98.8 per cent. As many as 183 recoveries were made in the last 24 hours, thereby taking the total recoveries to 4,41,42,791.
The daily positivity rate stood at 0.15 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 0.14 per cent.
Mandaviya told parliament on Thursday that the government has started random RT-PCR sampling among the passengers arriving at international airports in the country amid the recent surge of coronavirus infection in various countries including China, Japan, South Korea, France, and the United States.
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