The government of India announced that the pre-boarding RT-PCR tests will no longer be required for travellers from six countries, including China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, and Japan, nearly a month after they were made mandatory. The requirement to upload the “Air Suvidha” form for passengers arriving through or via the six countries has also been abolished by the Central Government in light of the worldwide sharp decline in COVID-19 cases.
Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote a letter to civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal stating that the current requirement for international arrivals from six countries to undergo pre-departure COVID-19 testing no later than 72 hours before departure and to declare their self-health on “Air Suvidha” was being modified in response to the downward spiral of -19 cases.
However, the Union Health Ministry will continue to monitor new variants and will continue to conduct random COVID19 testing on 2% of all travelers arriving in India, regardless of their origin country. Due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in China and neighboring nations, random tests were restarted on December 24, 2022, after being suspended in November.
The decision is made in light of the recent significant drop in COVID-19 cases in these nations. The latest 28 days saw a decrease of 89% in the number of new infections compared to the previous 28 days, as documented by the World Health Organization.
Wu Zunyou, the chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, recently stated that China will not have to fight a new COVID-19 wave on a large scale in the near future.
The number of COVID-19 cases in India has decreased to less than 100 per day, according to reports. According to data from Sunday, there were 124 new cases of COVID-19 and 1,843 active infections. There were 5,30,750 COVID-19-related deaths. India had increased its preparedness in December in response to reports of an increase in cases in many countries following China’s revocation of its zero-COVID policy.
