Coronavirus India update: RT-PCR test must for passengers arriving from these seven countries
Coronavirus update: Amid fear of new Covid 19 strains, the Central Government on Thursday said RT-PCR test was compulsory for passengers arriving in India from seven more countries --- South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
In a letter sent to all states and Union Territories (UTs), the government said considering reports of new mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and the rising number of variants of concern (VOCs) and variants of interest (Vols) globally, seven countries have been added in the list of countries whose travellers will have to get another RT-PCR test done upon landing at airports in India.
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In guidelines issued in February, passengers from only the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East had to get the RT-PCR test done again upon landing at Indian airports.
As per the latest update, the Centre also asked states/UTs to ensure strict compliance to these guidelines so that the import of variants of concern and variants of interest to India from other countries could be prevented and Covid 19 surge could be checked.
“The states/UTs must also strengthen their Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) activities being coordinated through the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG) network of laboratories, by sending a fixed percentage of samples of positive cases among international travellers for genome sequencing to the respective INSACOG Genome Sequencing Laboratories tagged with them,” Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in the letter.
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ICMR Director General Balram Bhargava said a mutant found in Columbia was currently classified as a mutant of interest.
-PTC News
