New Delhi: India’s health ministry notification said all international passengers entering India will be required to undertake mandatory 7-day quarantine upon arrival in the country from January 11th. Post home quarantine period, on the 8th day the passengers have to undertake an RT-PCR test as well. The announcement comes amid a sharp spike in cases of Omicron variant of Covid-19 across many cities in the past few days.
“All travellers (including that 2% who are selected for random testing on arrival and found negative) will undergo home quarantine for 7 days.”They should upload results of the RT-PCR test done on the 8th day on the Air Suvidha portal, which will be monitored by the respective state governments,” the guidelines said. If the Covid test results come negative, passengers have been advised to self-monitor their health for the next 7 days. However, if found positive, their samples would be further sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory network. “They shall be managed at isolation facility and treated as per laid down standard protocol,” the guidelines added.
India recorded above 1 Lakh cases after 214 days, taking India’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,52,26,386 which includes 3,007 cases of Omicron reported across 27 states and UTs, according to the Union Health Ministry data. Among states, Maharashtra recorded the maximum number of 876 cases followed by Delhi at 465, Karnataka 333, Rajasthan 291, Kerala 284 and Gujarat 204.