Passengers from “at-risk” countries will be tested for Covid upon arrival.
New Delhi:
The Central Government today issued new regulations for international travelers and will take effect from midnight. These were announced after assessing the level of public health preparedness with the states and union territories from the perspective of ‘Omicron’.
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Passengers arriving from “at-risk” countries will be tested for Covid upon arrival and cannot leave the airport until their RT-PCR test results are available. If they are found negative, they will undergo a seven-day home quarantine and be tested again on day 8. State officials will visit their homes to ensure effective home isolation.
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If positive for the virus is found, the passenger will be isolated and treated, and their sample will be immediately sent to the INSACOG Labs network, a multi-laboratory, multi-agency, all-India network established by the government to track gene variants in SARS-CoV-2, to sequence genomes to identify virus strains. Countries will then conduct contact tracing of these active individuals and follow up for 14 days.
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Passengers from “at-risk” countries are advised to be prepared to wait at airports until their results. The list of countries considered “at risk” currently includes the UK, all 44 countries in Europe, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.
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Countries have been advised not to let their guard down and stay vigilant for international passengers arriving in the country via airports, ports and land border crossings. The “Check, Monitor, Treat, Vaccinate” strategy has been reevaluated. Countries have also been advised to step up testing as the ‘Omicron’ variant is said to be unable to escape the RT-PCR Test and the Rapid Antigen Test that has been used to detect Covid thus far. It is recommended to strengthen testing infrastructure, strictly implement testing guidelines and maintain reasonable rates of RT-PCR testing, which is believed to be more effective in detection, has been recommended .
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The Center has also recommended continuing to monitor areas where recent clusters of positive cases have appeared and promptly submitting all positive samples for genome sequencing to the INSACOG network. The preparation of medical infrastructure including ICU, oxygen bed, ventilator, etc., focusing on rural areas and pediatric cases has been recommended. Medical facilities were found to be severely understaffed when a second Covid wave hit India earlier this year.
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