India Mandates Negative COVID-19 Report For Flyers From China Among Five Places From January 1

New Delhi: Passengers arriving in India from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand will be mandatorily required to provide negative Covid reports from January 1, Minister of Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday, December 29. They will have to upload the negative Covid reports from RT-PCR tests on the Air Suvidha portal prior to their departure.

The tests have to be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India, Mr. Mandaviya said.

Also Read: “Don’t Panic, India Is Preparing For Potential COVID-19 Outbreak”: COVID Panel Chief Dr N.K. Arora

This requirement is in addition to the random two per cent tests of all international passengers in all incoming international flights on their arrival in India irrespective of their port of departure, the minister said.

Amid a spike in coronavirus cases in some countries, the government has sounded an alert, tightened Covid guidelines and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality. India recorded 268 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases increased to 3,552, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.11 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.17 per cent, the ministry said.

Earlier on December 22, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), issued an advisory on the impending COVID outbreak. IMA sent out an alert and made an appeal to the public to follow COVID-appropriate behaviour with immediate effect.

On December 21, Mr. Mandaviya, chaired a high-level meeting with senior officials and experts to review the COVID-19 situation in India. The ministry advised the citizens to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines, including wearing a mask, washing hands, and maintaining social distance. The union ministry also directed the state and union territory governments to strengthen their surveillance.

Also Read: India Prepares For Plausible COVID-19 Outbreak, Conducts Mock Drills At Hospitals

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.