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In the wake of a new spurt of Covid-19 in some parts of the world, including China, India on Thursday restarted random sampling for Coronavirus tests of incoming passengers at all international airports.
Initially, two per cent of the incoming travellers will have to give samples after arriving at the airports, Indian Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
He said after collecting samples, the passengers will be allowed to go and the RT-PCR tests will be carried out. They will be contacted if there's a positive case, and a decision on line of treatment be taken.
But, he said, that India has no immediate plan to stop flights from countries, which reported new cases of the virus.
The government is also thinking of reintroducing "Air Suvidha" forms or complete vaccination proof for passengers coming from the countries, which reported the highest number of Covid-19 cases, reports said.
Meanwhile, the government had asked states and union territories (UTs) to gear up surveillance against the new variety of coronavirus along with increasing genome sequencing of positive cases to detect the new variants of coronavirus.
The union health ministry also urged people to follow appropriate covid protocol by maintaining social distancing, using face masks in crowded places, washing hands with soaps and using sanitisers.
Earlier, the Indian Medical Association, the country's top medical body, today appealed to the public to follow Covid appropriate behaviour with immediate effect.
In an advisory, it listed necessary steps to overcome "the impending Covid outbreak, including wearing face masks in all public places, maintaining social distancing, regular handwashing with soap and water or sanitisers.
In another development, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a meeting with his cabinet colleagues and top officials of the government to review the Covid situation in India after four cases of the Omicron sub-variant driving a massive China surge were found in the country.
