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New Delhi:23/12/22: Amid the surge of COVID-19 in China and some other countries, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya today asked the states to follow the ‘test, track, treat and vaccinate’ strategy and the public to follow Covid appropriate behaviour.
In a meeting with the state health ministers to ascertain the Covid situation, Mandaviya asked them to step up testing, boost surveillance and ensure the readiness of hospital infrastructure.
Mandaviya also asked the states to be alert and said that the Centre and states have to work in a collaborative spirit as was done during the previous Covid waves.
Keeping in mind the upcoming festive season, the Health Ministry asked the states and UTs to ensure wearing masks, maintaining hand hygiene and physical distancing.
The ministry also directed the states to keep a track of influenza and flu-like symptoms to detect the early rise in Covid trends. The Union Health Minister also asked the states to send positive samples for genome sequencing. The states have also been asked to take stock of the hospital infrastructure and logistical requirements.
The ministry also said the Covid vaccine effort has to be stepped up by creating more awareness campaigns.
The Union health ministry has asked the civil aviation ministry to ensure random post-arrival Covid testing at airports of 2 per cent of the passengers arriving in India on each international flight from Saturday to minimise the risk of ingress of any new variant of the coronavirus in the country.
With random coronavirus testing of international arriving passengers set to start on Saturday, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has said that airlines’ crew members will have to bring such identified passengers to the testing facility at the airport.
Against the backdrop of rising coronavirus cases in China and some other parts of the world, the government has decided to subject 2 per cent of the passengers arriving on international flights to random coronavirus tests starting from Saturday morning.
In a communication on Friday, the ministry said that airlines are required to direct their crew members to lead and bring identified 2 per cent of international arriving passengers to the testing facility at the airport.
“The airport operators would create the necessary infrastructure to facilitate random testing of international arriving passengers at their respective airports,” the communication said.
The communication has been sent to the aviation regulator DGCA and copies have been marked to all scheduled commercial airlines, and airport operators as well as to states and Union Territories (UTs), among others.
