Passengers arriving at six major airports in India on or after Monday from countries designated as ‘at risk’ due to the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus will be required to pre-book RT-PCR tests, according to instructions issued last week by the ministry of civil aviation. According to a government notification, the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal will be modified to accommodate passengers arriving from ‘at risk’ countries or who have visited them within the last 14 days.
The norms have been listed for airports in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad. The ministry clarified that this is only the first stage of protocol implementation, and that once the system has been stabilised and passengers have experienced no major difficulties in pre-booking, the rule may be extended to other airports as well.
The real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is widely regarded as one of the most precise laboratory methods available for detecting, tracking, and studying the presence of Covid-19 in a person. Airports in India have been conducting both rapid and routine RT-PCR tests, handling up to 15,000 samples per day, with results taking anywhere from one hour to eight hours.
How to pre-book RT-PCR tests at Indian airports?
1. Go to the official website of the international airport in the city you’re visiting.
2. On the top panel, look for the option ‘Book Covid-19 Test.’
3. Next, choose a mode of transportation (in this case, international arrival).
4. Enter all of your personal information, such as your name, email address, mobile phone number, Aadhaar card/passport number, address, appointment date, time slot, and so on.
5. After entering all of the information, choose the type of test (in this case, RT-PCR, though Rapid PCR testing is available as well)
6. When you arrive at the airport, follow the instructions on the screen to schedule your RT-PCR test.
What is the cost of the RT-PCR test?
A regular RT-PCR test will cost a traveller Rs 500, while a rapid PCR test will cost Rs 3,500. In the case of the former, test results will be available in six to eight hours, whereas the latter will be available in 30 minutes to one and a half hours. Everyone travelling to or through the IGI airport can use the testing facility.
Passengers can also reschedule their appointment or cancel their reservation entirely.
Omicron Scare
India’s Omicron Covid count rose to 153 on Sunday after Maharashtra reported six and Gujarat logged four more cases of the new variant of coronavirus, respectively.
According to central and state officials, omicron cases have been detected in 11 states and union territories — Maharashtra (54), Delhi (22), Rajasthan (17) and Karnataka (14), Telangana (20), Gujarat (11), Kerala (11), Andhra Pradesh (1), Chandigarh (1), Tamil Nadu (1) and West Bengal (1). Six persons tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus in Maharashtra on Sunday, raising the state’s tally of such cases to 54, the health department said.
While two of these patients had a history of travel to Tanzania, two others had returned from England and one from the Middle East. All five of them are fully vaccinated.
Another patient is a five-year-old boy from Junnar in Pune who is a close contact of Dubai travellers from Junnar, it said in a statement.
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