India’s Health Minister Manushka Mandaviya said that it has been decided to randomly select international passengers coming to India and test them to see if they have contracted the Corona virus.
Accordingly, yesterday (22) the Minister had taken steps to inform the Indian Parliament about this new measure. He asked the state governments to increase surveillance for new corona variants and send samples of all corona infection cases to genetic sequencing laboratories.
The Minister pointed out that India relaxed the rules on wearing face masks early this year after the number of people infected with the Corona virus began to drop sharply, and even though there was no legal compulsion from the government, everyone should pay attention to wearing face masks again.
Also, according to the data of the Ministry of Health, it is revealed that there are currently about 3,400 patients infected with the virus in India.
The primary reason for taking this new anti-coronavirus measure by India was the rapid rise in the number of infected people in China with the relaxation of the strict anti-coronavirus laws followed so far amidst the few people’s opposition in China.
However, although the situation is somewhat risky, the Indian government still has no plans to stop flights from countries where new cases have been reported, Minister Mandaviya said.
Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association, India’s top medical body, has asked people to wear face masks in all public places and get booster shots. People were asked to avoid public gatherings like weddings, political and social gatherings and international travel.
“At present the situation is not dangerous and therefore there is no need to panic. Prevention is better than cure,” the association said in a statement.
India, with a population of nearly 1.4 billion, has administered more than 2.2 billion doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but only 27% of the population has received the third booster dose.
