E-Paper
Covid: Fresh guidelines in UP for those coming from “at risk” nations
The nations marked at risk include the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe
In view of the changing nature of Sars-CoV-2 virus which causes Covid-19 infection, the state health department has issued fresh guidelines for international travellers particularly those coming from countries marked as “at risk”.
The countries marked as at risk include the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, and Zimbabwe. The list of these countries was made on October 20 and the names will change according to Covid situation in other countries.
“People coming from at risk countries where India and that country have reciprocal arrangement for acceptance of vaccine may be allowed to leave airport and will self monitor their health for 14 days. If not or partially vaccinated, such travellers will give their samples for Covid test and will undergo 7-day home quarantine. They shall undergo a test again on the eighth day and if tested negative will undertake another 7-day home quarantine,” say the guidelines.
“Our teams are at the airport and they assist both international and domestic travellers in following the guidelines. A close watch on the arrival is kept in the wake of different variants being reported in other places,” said chief medical officer, Lucknow, Dr Manoj Agrawal.
“We are ensuring that the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test report is with passengers as per the guidelines and if the report gets older than the prescribed date limit during travel, a fresh sample is taken,” said Dr Agrawal.
Experts opine that in this way, the presence of any new variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus can be checked. “If passengers coming from other state or country are screened at the entry point, Uttar Pradesh can avoid fresh spurt of Covid cases. Significantly, we have Covid infection at its lowest level at present,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
