Passengers arriving in India from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand will be mandatorily required to provide negative Covid reports from January 1, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday.
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They will have to upload the negative Covid reports from RT-PCR tests on the Air Suvidha portal prior to their departure.
The tests have to be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India, Mandaviya said.
This requirement is in addition to the random two per cent tests of all international passengers in all incoming international flights on their arrival in India irrespective of their port of departure, the minister said.
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Amid a spike in coronavirus cases in some countries, the government has sounded an alert, tightened Covid guidelines and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality.
India recorded 268 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases increased to 3,552, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
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The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.11 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.17 per cent, the ministry said.
It said 2,13,080 tests for detection of Covid have been conducted in the last 24 hours. The active cases comprise 0.01 per cent of the total infections, while the national recovery rate has increased to 98.80 per cent, according to the health ministry's website.
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According to the ministry's website, 220.09 crore doses of Covid vaccine have been administered so far under the nationwide vaccination drive.
