Air Suvidha forms must for passengers coming from 5 countries; Mansukh Mandaviya

Tags: National

Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on 24 December 2022 that the Air Suvidha portal will be implemented for passengers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand in view of rising cases of COVID in China. 

Air Suvidha forms are self-declarations of the health of passengers travelling to India from the identified international destinations. These forms have been reintroduced to keep a check on the passengers arriving from the countries most affected by the virus.

The Minister also said that the RT-PCR (reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction) test will be mandatory for them. And they will be quarantined if they test positive. 

India has already started random testing 2 percent of international passengers arriving at its airports for COVID-19 as the country steps up surveillance for new virus variants.

The steps come amid a series of high-level meetings following a spike in cases seen in other parts of the world, although experts and officials have reportedly said India has little to worry because of its high baseline immunity.