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NEW DELHI: India will resume random testing of 2% international arrivals from Saturday (December 24) 10 am, in wake of surge in Covid cases in many countries like China.
Airlines will do the random selection and passengers will be allowed to leave after giving the samples.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote to aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal on Thursday and said: “Globally the number of new cases of Covid-19 continues to remain alarmingly high, with around 5.9 lakh daily new cases reported on average during the week ending on December 19. This spike in trajectory of Covid-19 is particularly concerning with respect to Japan, United States of America, South Korea, Brazil, France and China where cases are increasing in a sustained manner.”
Therefore, “in order to minimise the risk of ingress of new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country, it has been decided that ministry of civil aviation in coordination with airport operators and AirPort Health Offices (APHOS) shall ensure: a) sub-section of 2% of the total passengers in the flight shall undergo random post-arrival testing at the airport on arrival. b) Such travellers in each flight shall be identified by the concerned airlines (preferably from different countries). c) Such travellers will submit the samples and shall be allowed to leave the airport.”
“A copy of the positive report shall be shared with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme at shoc.idsp@ncdc.gov.in by the concerned Testing Laboratory (besides sharing with the APHOS) to be in turn shared with concerned State/UT for further follow up action. In case, any such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be sent for genomic testing at the designated INSACOG laboratory network. This arrangement shall come into practice with effect from 10:00 AM on Saturday, December 24, 2022,” it added.
Airlines will do the random selection and passengers will be allowed to leave after giving the samples.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday wrote to aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal on Thursday and said: “Globally the number of new cases of Covid-19 continues to remain alarmingly high, with around 5.9 lakh daily new cases reported on average during the week ending on December 19. This spike in trajectory of Covid-19 is particularly concerning with respect to Japan, United States of America, South Korea, Brazil, France and China where cases are increasing in a sustained manner.”
Therefore, “in order to minimise the risk of ingress of new variant of SARS-CoV-2 virus in the country, it has been decided that ministry of civil aviation in coordination with airport operators and AirPort Health Offices (APHOS) shall ensure: a) sub-section of 2% of the total passengers in the flight shall undergo random post-arrival testing at the airport on arrival. b) Such travellers in each flight shall be identified by the concerned airlines (preferably from different countries). c) Such travellers will submit the samples and shall be allowed to leave the airport.”
“A copy of the positive report shall be shared with Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme at shoc.idsp@ncdc.gov.in by the concerned Testing Laboratory (besides sharing with the APHOS) to be in turn shared with concerned State/UT for further follow up action. In case, any such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be sent for genomic testing at the designated INSACOG laboratory network. This arrangement shall come into practice with effect from 10:00 AM on Saturday, December 24, 2022,” it added.
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