India re-started testing 2 per cent of international travellers on arrival at airports Saturday. The government is also likely to introduce mandatory testing at boarding points for all passengers from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand, sources said.
China is currently reporting a surge in cases driven by the highly infectious BF.7 variant, which is a sub-lineage of the Omicron BA.5 strain. Top government sources, part of the Covid-19 task force, told the Indian Express that the Union health ministry is currently holding discussions with the Union civil aviation ministry to introduce mandatory RT-PCR testing specifically for passengers from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand. Sources also said that mandatory quarantine could be reintroduced for those who test positive on arrival.
The new directions are likely to be reintroduced after the Centre directed the states to ramp up genome sequencing and ensure that a larger number of samples is sent for detecting new Covid-19 variants.
The random RT-PCR sampling of people coming to India had been done away with just over a month ago in the travel advisory issued on November 21, which said, “all travellers should preferably be fully vaccinated.” The same advisory also did away with the requirement of inbound passengers to fill up details of their travel on the Air Suvidha portal and upload a vaccination certificate or a negative report of an RT-PCR test conducted 72 hours prior to travel. Before September, it was mandatory for travellers to upload a negative test report irrespective of their vaccination status.
On Saturday, the Union health ministry also issued directions to the states to remain prepared on medical oxygen. “The Covid-19 cases in the country are low and not surging as of now, but to face any challenges arising in the future, the operationalisation and maintenance of the medical infrastructure are of utmost importance,” said Manohar Agnani, additional secretary of the health ministry.
#InPics | India masks up: States prepare to curb the spread of #COVID amid global surge in cases
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The Centre directed the states to ensure that all pressure swing adsorption (PSA) oxygen plants are up and running, there is availability of adequate liquid medical oxygen in the health facilities and an uninterrupted supply chain is available, and an adequate inventory of oxygen cylinders is maintained. The states have also been asked to ensure that ventilators, BiPAP, and other oxygen systems remain functional.
The Centre further directed the states to “reinvigorate” oxygen control rooms for prompt resolution of oxygen-related issues. It also urged that all healthcare facilities using oxygen be on-boarded on the ODAS platform for daily oxygen demand monitoring.
A spate of directions has been issued over the week, with the health minister conducting meetings with officials and representatives of the states and the prime minister also holding a review meeting, keeping in mind the increase in the number of Covid-19 cases reported in several countries including China. India, however, continues to maintain a downward trend with an average of 153 cases recorded in a day during the week ending December 22.
