Under the new guidelines, only asymptomatic passengers will be able to board flights
New Delhi:
A negative RT-PCR result not exceeding 72 hours has been made mandatory for passengers traveling to India from seven other countries, including China and South Africa. The measure comes after the discovery of a new variant of Covid, C.1.2, which could be more infectious and has shown signs of circumventing the protection provided by vaccines.
Although previously this rule was only applicable to arrivals from the UK, Europe and the Middle East, today seven more countries (South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe) have been added to the list. ), according to a directive from the Ministry of Health.
The new variant was first detected in South Africa in May. It has since been found in China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, England, New Zealand, Portugal and Switzerland.
Under the new guidelines, asymptomatic passengers will only be allowed to board flights from India and, on arrival, will be tested again by Covid using the RT-PCR test.
The ministry has also asked states to send a fixed percentage of positive case samples among international travelers for genome surveillance.
Previously, Mumbai’s civic body, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), made RT-PCR testing mandatory for international passengers arriving at the city’s airport as of September 3 for fears about the new stump.
C.1.2. evolved from C.1., a lineage of the virus that dominated infections in the first wave of the virus in South Africa in mid-2020. It has between 44 and 59 mutations of the original virus detected in Wuhan in China.
The new strain has so far not been found in India, the ANI news agency reported.