Passengers arriving from China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand — the countries where Covid-19 cases are on a rise — will soon require mandatory RT-PCR tests, Union health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Saturday. While senior health officials said that these countries will be part of the rule under which 2% passengers will be randomly tested, no written clarification was issued by the ministry till late Saturday.
Speaking to news agency ANI, Mandaviya said, “Air Suvidha portal to be implemented for passengers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, RT-PCR to be made mandatory for them. After arriving in India, if they test positive, they will be quarantined.”
Mandaviya also said that the government is taking stock of preparedness to check the spread of Covid-19. On Friday, the health minister held a meeting with state ministers to discuss the current situation and ensure that the country is ready with all measures in place.
India is now assessing its preparedness since Covid cases have been on the rise in countries including China, Japan, and South Korea. States have been asked to direct hospital administrations to make arrangements for Covid beds, oxygen and staff to prepare for a probable situation where there could be a rise in infections.
Filling of Air Suvidha forms to declare current health status shall also be made compulsory for international passengers arriving from these countries. The Air Suvidha self-declaration form is a digital health and travel document that is currently required from all travellers who wish to enter India.
On Friday, Mandaviya, following a meeting with state ministers, tweeted, “Emphasised on the need to be alert in COVID-19 review meeting with State Health Ministers. There is no need to panic. We have 3 years of experience in pandemic management. The Centre Govt will provide all the support to combat COVID-19. We will take action as per the needs.”
He further added, “Also, stressed on combating the pandemic with a pre-emptive and proactive approach by increasing testing, genome sequencing and following Covid-appropriate behaviour.”
As government continues to review health infrastructure, a senior Union health ministry official, requesting anonymity, said: “We are keeping a close watch at the global Covid situation on a daily basis and we will take whatever measures are required to ensure that the disease does not spread in the country.”
“We do not have any reliable Covid data to go by from China but what we are hearing the case load is high and it is increasing; Japan has also seen a sudden surge in cases and we are being extremely vigilant,” added the official.
The health ministry also released guidelines on Friday for the upcoming festive season asking people to celebrate with caution.
India has been recording a few hundred cases daily despite lakhs of cases being recorded globally.
Health experts said that exercising such caution could be good for India as it will help in the early detection of a possible new variant.
“It is a good move by the government because this way we will be able to detect early any probable new variant that might be driving the infections in China and other countries,” said Dr Anurag Agrawal, pulmonologist and dean, biosciences and health research at Ashoka University.
In a statement issued on Saturday, Genestrings Diagnostic Centre said that their lab at the Delhi airport has resumed testing, which was otherwise stopped after restrictions were taken off at the Delhi international airport, for inbound passengers.
“On average approximately 25,000 travellers arrive at the IGI (Indira Gandhi International), Delhi Airport, out of which 500 random passengers are being tested. By the evening of the first day Genestrings had conducted approximately 60-70 tests,” the statement said.
