Travellers from 7 more nations need to carry RT-PCR report when coming to India: Govt

New Delhi: India on Thursday made RT-PCR test mandatory for passengers arriving from seven more nations, including South Africa, Bangladesh and China, owing to a rise in new Covid-19 strains.

Arrivals from South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe will have to get another RT-PCR test done upon landing at Indian airports. This is along with the one they need to do before boarding the flight.

According to previous guidelines, passengers arriving from the United Kingdom, Europe and West Asia were required to get their RT-PCR tests done again upon landing at Indian airports.

In a letter to all states and Union Territories, the government said that due to new mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus, rising number of ‘variants of concern’ and rising number of ‘variants of interest’ across the planet, these nations were added to the list of countries where travelers will have to get another RT-PCR test done after landing at Indian airports along with the one they undergo before boarding the flight.

“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,” read the letter written by Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

NITI Aayog member (health) VK Paul said INSACOG has the capacity to understand the impact of mutants, be it in terms of disease severity or disease transmissibility. “The screening of international travellers from a genetic sequencing point of view is one of the most critical protocols and pillars,” he added. He further urged the authorities to take measures so that these variants are not imported into the country.