Internationals planning to travel to India will be subject to a random COVID test.
In this regard, the Health Minister of India, Mansukh Mandaviya, announced that the country would randomly test 2 percent of international passengers.
Authorities in India have announced that the new changes would include passengers traveling to India from Japan, China, Thailand, Hong Kong as well as South Korea, VisaGuide.World reports.
The Minister of Health and Family Welfare of India has confirmed that travelers from the countries mentioned above who test positive for the COVID-19 test or those who show COVID-19 symptoms would be required to follow quarantine rules upon their arrival.
“The global pandemic is not yet over… The virus is changing its face from time to time,” Mandaviya told parliament on Thursday.
Authorities in India have taken such measures in order to prevent a surge in the number of COVID-19 infection cases and protect citizens’ lives. However, the Health Minister of India confirmed that the government has no plan to stop flights from territories that are being highly affected by the spread of the Coronavirus and its new variants, even those from China.
“We don’t have any direct flights to or from China. It is our endeavor to stop the virus from coming to India, and that travel should not be interrupted either,” the Minister pointed out in this regard.
According to the figures provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), India has registered a total of 163 cases of COVID-19 infection in the last 24 hours.
In addition, the data provided by WHO revealed that from January 3, 2020, until December 23, 2022, authorities in India recorded 44,676,678 cases of Coronavirus infection while 530,690 people have died up to this point due to the virus.
According to WHO, as of December 6, a total of 2,199,517,388 vaccine doses have been administered in India.
However, despite such figures, authorities in India have stressed that they don’t plan to impose other strict preventive measures in order to halt the further spread of COVID-19.
In this regard, the Health Minister, Mandaviya stressed that states have been “advised to ensure protocol is followed”, still there is no concrete decision in this regard yet.
The Minister was set to hold a meeting with officials in order to review the epidemiologic situation in the country.
Mandaviya stressed that taking into account the upcoming festival season as well as New Year, countries have been urged to keep up awareness of hand hygiene as well as the importance of face masks, according to a Euronews report.
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