India announces mandatory COVID-19 tests for arrivals from 5 Asian countries

India has mandated a COVID-19 negative test report for travellers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Thailand, the health minister said on Saturday.

Passengers from those countries would be put under quarantine if they showed symptoms of COVID-19 or tested positive, Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.

The Centre has said that if any passenger from these countries on arrival is found symptomatic or tests positive for COVID-19, then he/she will be put under quarantine.

Health workers prepare to collect swab samples from passengers to test for the COVID-19, on arrival at Anna International Airport. AFP

Meanwhile, the states have also been asked to be on alert mode and ramp up the genome sequencing to track the new variant in positive cases.

Mandaviya, in a meeting with states on Friday, urged the states to strengthen the surveillance system for whole genome sequencing of positive case samples to track the variants through Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) network to ensure timely detection of newer variants, if any, circulating in the country.

Focus is to be given to health facility-based sentinel surveillance; pan-respiratory virus surveillance; community-based surveillance; and sewage/wastewater surveillance, he added.

Mandaviya said that irrespective of the new COVID variants, 'Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate & Adherence to COVID Appropriate Behaviour' continue to remain the tested strategy for Covid management.

India reports 201 fresh coronavirus cases

India has reported 201 fresh coronavirus cases and one fatality in the past 24 hours, health ministry said on Saturday. With the fresh fatality, the death toll due to the virus reached 5,30,691.

Active caseload of the country stands at 3,397 cases, accounting for 0.01 per cent of the total cases. The weekly positive rate currently stands at 0.14 per cent, while the daily positive rate stands at 0.15 per cent.

The recovery of 183 patients in the last 24 hours took the cumulative tally to 4,41,42,791. Consequently, India's recovery rate stands at 98.80 per cent.

Also in the same period, a total of 1,36,315 tests were conducted across the country, increasing the overall tally to over 90.97 crore.

With 1,05,044 vaccines administered in the same period, country's Covid-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 220.04 crore. On Friday, the country had registered 163 COVID-19 cases.