COVID-19 negative test reports will be required for passengers arriving from countries with a high number of cases, India’s health minister said. “We will identify the countries with the highest caseload in the next week,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said. “People from there who come to India must upload their (COVID-19) RT-PCR reports.”
The countries included in the mandate for a COVID-19 negative test report include travelers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, the health minister said. Passengers from those countries would be put under quarantine if they showed symptoms of COVID-19 or tested positive, Minister Mandaviya said.
Mandaviya said passengers will be required to upload their reports prior to travelling and upon landing and undergo thermal screening. Mandaviya told parliament that India will also randomly test 2% of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, the second highest number in the world.
There was an increase in COVID-19 cases in China and other parts of the world earlier this week, according to an official from the government, which urged Indian states to keep an eye out for any new variants of the virus in crowded areas and to make sure people wear masks while in crowded areas.