India detects 6 Covid cases on screening int’l passengers from ‘at-risk’ nations

The government’s revised guidelines for international passengers came into effect today. The new rules have been issued in view of the new SARS-Cov-2 variant, which has been designated as a ‘variant of concern (VOC)’ by the World Health Organisation.

“On the first day of operation of the Guidelines for International Travellers issued by the Centre as public health response measures for control and management of the newly reported variant of coronavirus, which has been designated as a ‘variant of concern’ by WHO, six passengers were reported to be Covid positive,” the ministry said.

The Centre said that 11 flights from “at-risk” nations landed at the country’s various airports, except Lucknow, from midnight to 4 pm on Wednesday carrying 3,476 passengers.

“All 3,476 passengers were administered RT PCR Tests, wherein only six passengers were found Covid-19 positive,” the ministry said, adding the samples of Covid-19 positive passengers have been sent to INSACOG labs for ‘Whole Genomic Sequencing’.

The ‘at-risk’ countries (updated on November 30) are countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel.

Travellers from these countries need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing.

The Centre had earlier further revised the Guidelines for International Arrivals mandating that two per cent of the total passengers coming from countries that are not in the ‘at-risk’ category will also be tested for COVID-19 on a random basis at the airports.

The 2% of such travellers in each flight shall be identified by the airlines concerned (preferably from different countries).

Apart from that, travellers from nations excluding the ‘at-risk’ countries, will be allowed to leave the airport and shall self-monitor their health for 14 days after arrival.

Passengers originating or transiting from ‘at-risk’ countries will have to undergo an RT-PCR test after arrival and will be required to wait for the results at the airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight, according to the revised guidelines which came into effect from December 1.

If tested negative, they will have to be in home quarantine for seven days and will undergo a re-test on the eighth day of arrival in India. If again negative, self-monitor of health would continue for seven more days, it said.

However, if such travellers test positive for COVID-19, their samples should be sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory network.

They shall be managed at a separate isolation facility and treated according to the standard protocol, including contact tracing. Contacts of such positive cases should be kept in institutional quarantine or at home quarantine monitored strictly by the state government concerned, the guidelines said. 

The dos and don’ts shall be provided along with the ticket to the travellers by the airlines/agencies concerned. The airlines will allow boarding by only those passengers who have filled in a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal and uploaded their negative RT-PCR test report, it stated.

This test should be conducted within 72 hrs before the journey.

Only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board a flight after thermal screening and all passengers shall be advised to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile devices.

The ministry added that the Government of India continues to keep track of the evolving situation, and support states and Union territories in the fight against the pandemic through a “whole of government” approach.

The ministry also said that the cumulative number of Covid vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 125 crore on Wednesday.

More than 71,55,049 vaccine doses have been administered till 7 pm, it said.

The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late night, the ministry said.

With agency inputs