Amid rising Covid, random post-arrival testing begins at Delhi Airport

NEW DELHI: Following the advisory 'Guidelines for International Arrivals', issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has commenced random post-arrival testing for International arrivals at Delhi Airport, said Dr Gauri Agarwal, Founder, Genestrings Diagnostic Center on Sunday.

"On average approx 25,000 travellers arrive at the IGI Delhi Airport, out of which 500 random passengers are being tested. By the end of the first day, Genestrings had conducted approximately 110 tests," Dr Gauri told ANI.

According to the new instructions by the government, 2 per cent of all passengers arriving at international airports have to undertake random post-arrival testing at the Delhi Airport from December 24.

This is being done to reduce the risk of ingress of the new Covid-19 variant BF.7 in India. India recorded 201 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.

India's active caseload currently stands at 3,397 which accounts for 0.01 per cent of the total cases. The recovery rate currently is at 98.8 per cent. As many as 183 recoveries were made in the last 24 hours, thereby taking the total recoveries to 4,41,42,791.

The daily positivity rate stood at 0.15 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate stood at 0.14 per cent. A total of 1,05,044 Covid-19 doses were administered in the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry quoted.

On Saturday Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that RT-PCR test will be mandatory for all passengers from international arrivals. "RT-PCR test to be mandatory for international arrivals from China, Japan, S. Korea, Hong Kong & Thailand.

On arrival, if any passenger from these countries is found symptomatic or tests positive for Covid19, then he/she will be put under quarantine," said Mandaviya.

Earlier on Thursday Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status and preparedness of public health response to Covid-19 and emphasised the need for strengthened surveillance with a focus on genome sequencing and increased testing.