NEW DELHI, Dec 22: The Union health ministry on Tuesday issued a set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for passengers arriving from the United Kingdom (UK) amid the detection of a new variant of the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) there in a bid to protect the country against fresh outbreak of the pandemic amidst steady decline in the number of positive cases.
Registering several landmarks, India recorded the lowest active caseload on Tuesday after 163 days which fell below three lakh (292,518). Its registering only 19,556 new cases in the last 24 hours was also a record after 173 days going down below 20,000 cases a day. The share of Active Cases in the total Positive Cases has further shrunk below 3% to 2.90%. This is lowest after 163 days. The total active cases were 2,92,258 on July 12, 2020.
A net decline of 11,121cases has been recorded in the total active cases in last 24 hours, according to the union health ministry release.
On Monday, the Centre had announced a temporary ban on flights from the UK into India which would continue till December 31.
As per the SOPs issued by the health ministry, all international travellers will be required to declare their travel history of the last 14 days and fill up a self-declaration form to be screened for Covid-19.
With regard to those coming from the UK, the ministry guidelines said that state governments should ensure that passengers are subjected to Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests on arrival, and in case of a positive sample, it is recommended that spike bases RT-PCR tests should be performed.
Passengers that are found to be positive shall be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate isolation unit coordinated by the respective state health authorities, the ministry added.
Those passengers who test negative through the RT-PCR method will be advised home quarantine. Concerned airlines have been asked to ensure that prior to check-in, the traveller is explained about the SOPs and in-flight announcements must be made explaining all relevant information to the passengers, as per the guidelines.
The ministry added that passengers from the UK who arrived in India between November 25 and December 8, 2020 would be contacted by District Surveillance Officers and will be advised to self-monitor their health.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier said the reproduction of the new Covid-19 variant has increased from 1.1 to 1.5 and people can protect themselves by following the regular protocol- which is social distancing, wearing masks/face coverings and washing hands. Hans Kluge, WHO’s regional director for Europe said that organisation was closely monitoring the spread of the new variant and would “convene member states to discuss strategies for testing, reducing transmission and communicating risks,” without specifying a timeframe.
The UK has registered over two million Covid-19 cases till now with deaths of 67,616 patients.
(Manas Dasgupta)