Travelers arriving from countries, including China, will have to show a negative COVID-19 test to enter the country.
The federal health minister said that India has released a report on negative COVID-19 test for travelers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand.
Passengers from those countries will be placed under quarantine if they show symptoms of COVID-19 or test positive for the virus, Health Minister Mansukh Mandavia said on Twitter on Saturday, as he posted images of tests carried out at the international airport in the capital, New Delhi.
India — which has reported the second-highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the world, at 44 million, behind the United States so far — also on Saturday began randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19. 19.
Mandavia noted an increase in cases in neighboring China due to the new rules, he told parliament on Thursday.
Only a few cases of BF.7 – the Omicron sub-factor driving the current boom in China – have been found in India so far, according to local media reports.
The minister urged state governments to increase surveillance for any new coronavirus variants and to send samples from all positive cases to genome sequencing laboratories.
India relaxed its mask-wearing rules earlier this year after the number of cases began to drop. According to data from the Ministry of Health, India currently has around 3,400 cases of coronavirus.
Cases have soared in China since it eased its strict coronavirus policy this month in the wake of rare public protests. Under the controversial policy, authorities would put entire towns and cities under lockdown if they reported only a few cases.
Mandaviya said the Indian government has no plans yet to halt flights from countries where new cases have been reported.
On Thursday, India’s top medical body, the Indian Medical Association, also appealed to people to wear masks in public and get the booster vaccinations. He also urged people to avoid public gatherings such as weddings, political and social meetings, and international travel.
India, with a population of 1.4 billion, has administered more than 2.2 billion vaccine doses, but only 27 percent of the population has received the third booster dose.