NEW DELHI: The Union government is planning to make it mandatory for passengers arriving from China and five other places to have negative RT-PCR reports beginning next week. Meanwhile on Wednesday, the official sources, citing the pattern of previous outbreaks, said that the next 40 days will be crucial as India may see a Covid surge in January.
"Previously, it has been noticed that a new wave of Covid-19 hits India around 30 – 35 days after it hits East Asia... This has been a trend," an official said. The health ministry sources, however, maintain that even if there is a wave, deaths and hospitalisations will be low because, according to them, "the severity of the infection is less".
As the government tightens Covid-19-related guidelines, the sources said the filling up of "air suvidha" forms and 72-hour prior RT-PCR testing may be made mandatory from next week for international passengers coming from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore.
The sources said 39 international passengers were found positive for Covid-19 out of the 6,000 tested on arrival during the last two days.
The 11 tourists from Myanmar, who were isolated at the Safdarjung Hospital earlier this week after one of them tested positive for Covid at the IGI Airport have turned out to be negative and are being discharged.
"A group of 11 tourists from Maynmar was brought to the hospital from the airport on Sunday. They were kept in the isolation ward. Now, all of them have tested negative and are being discharged," a senior doctor said, adding that samples taken from the person who tested positive at the airport have been sent for genome sequencing.
Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases in some countries, including China and South Korea, the government has sounded an alert and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality. Following the surge, the government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of international passengers arriving since last Saturday.
On Wednesday, the country logged 188 new coronavirus infections, while the number of active cases increased to 3,468. The Covid case tally was recorded at 4.46 crores. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.14 per cent, while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.18 per cent.
In Delhi, no government facility is administering free Covid vaccines, while paid vaccines for all at private facilities at `386.25 continue to be available over the next few days.
The latest spike in cases is being driven by Omicron sub-variant BF.7. The official sources said the transmissibility of this BF.7 sub-variant is very high. A person infected with the subvariant can infect up to 16 other people. However, experts argue that no quick steps are required right now beyond what is already done.
