Six international passengers out of 3,476 who were screened upon arrival from 'at-risk' countries tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday as new guidelines were put to place amid Omicron scare. Samples of those who tested positive have been sent for genomic sequencing, the Health Ministry said. After fresh rules for international arrivals were made effective from December 1, 11 flights from "at-risk" countries landed in India's at various airports, except Lucknow, from midnight to 4 pm 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' nations (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.
Travelers from these countries need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing.
The Centre's revised guidelines for international travelers came into effect on Wednesday. The fresh guidelines have been issued because 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 Union Health Ministry said.
The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday further revised the Guidelines for International Arrivals mandating that two percent 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 two percent of such travelers in each flight shall be identified by the airlines concerned (preferably from different countries).
(With PTI Inputs)
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