India plans to introduce a mandatory report of a negative COVID-19 test for travelers arriving from countries with a high number of cases, the country’s health minister said in an interview with NewsX television on Friday.
“Over the next week, selected countries where the number of cases are higher today will be identified,” Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said. “People from there coming to India will have to upload their RT-PCR (COVID-19) reports before coming.”
Passengers will have to upload their messages on the government website and undergo thermal screening after landing, Mandaviya said. India, which has so far reported the world’s second-highest number of confirmed COVID cases, will start randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19, Mandaviya told parliament on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the Indian government asked Indian states to be on the lookout for any new variants of the virus and urged people to wear masks in crowded areas, citing a surge in COVID-19 cases in China and other parts of the world.
