The Union wellness ministry has mandated a damaging RT-PCR test report for travellers arriving from South Africa, China, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Mauritius, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
They will a need to have damaging RT-PCR report to board a flight to India and will also have to undergo an RT-PCR test on arrival. This rule is currently applicable to travellers from the UK, Europe and Middle East.
The list has been expanded taking into consideration the rise in the quantity of mutations of SARS-Cov-2 and raise in the quantity of ‘variants of concern’ and ‘variants of interest’ globally, Rajesh Bhushan, wellness secretary stated.
A new variant and mutant, C.1.2, had been detected in Colombia and has also been seen in South Africa.
Only asymptomatic passengers will be permitted to board flights to India, Bhushan stated. In case of international travellers testing positive on arrival, states will have to implement stringent public wellness measures of get in touch with tracing, quarantine, testing and Covid-acceptable behaviour, he stated.
The wellness ministry has asked states to strengthen their genome sequencing activity by means of the INSACOG network of laboratories by sending samples of positive situations of international travellers.
The nation has so far reported 300 Delta plus variant situations. All the current vaccines have been identified to be productive against this variant, Balram Bhargava, director basic of Indian Council of Medical Research, stated.