New Delhi: Due to the evolving trajectory of Covid-19 cases, the Union Health Ministry has made RT-PCR testing mandatory for passengers on all flights coming from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan. It has been decided that the existing guidelines for international arrivals need to be revised and updated in the wake of the reports regarding the circulation of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan," informed Civil Aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal about the new guidelines.
Also read: Active Covid cases in country decline to 2,670
"The new guidelines will also apply to transiting passengers through the countries irrespective of their originating countries before coming to any Indian airport," the letter issued by Lav Agarwal, additional secretary in the health ministry said. Earlier, guidelines were issued regarding pre-arrival Covid-19 testing of international travellers to India from identified high-risk countries to minimise the risk of importation of variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
As per the new guidelines, the Ministry of Civil Aviation's Air Suvidha portal has to be made operational for passengers on all international flights from the affected counties, with a provision to allow international travellers arriving in India to submit negative RT PCR test reports as well as to submit self deceleration form on this portal. The existing practice of post-arrival random testing of 2 per cent of travellers shall continue.
Meanwhile, India reported 173 new cases in the last 24 hours with a daily positivity rate of 0.19 per cent and a weekly positivity rate of 0.14 per cent. India conducted 91.1 crore tests so far with 92,955 tests conducted in the past 24 hours. India's active caseload currently stands at 2,670.
