Dehradun:Uttarakhand on Monday issued fresh guidelines for those entering the state from outside amid growing concern over the new Omicron variant of coronavirus. In an official notification, the state government said that people coming from outside will have to undergo a mandatory Covid test. Besides, officials have also been instructed to conduct Covid tests at various border entry points over the fear of new variants.
“All districts instructed that if any passenger coming from outside the state shows symptoms of Covid, then he/she should be tested, and later put under 14-day quarantine if tested positive. Covid testing will be conducted at various border entry points”, said the notification issued by DG-Health Uttrakhand Dr Tripti Bhaguna. People carrying a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report with a maximum of 72 hours validity will be spared from testing at borders.
For now, the state is having a total of 176 active cases. On Sunday the state reported 36 Covid-19 cases in last 24 hours, while in the last one week it was 27 and in November, the state reported 88 cases.While the state is witnessing a surge in Covid -19 cases while the rate of testing is going down, and on average only 8 thousand tests happening every week. Last week recorded the least sampling in the past nine months.
The notification by the Uttarakhand government comes a day after the Centre revised guidelines for passengers traveling to India from other countries. As per the new guidelines, international passengers will have to submit a Covid-negative report and share their travel history for the previous 14 days before boarding a flight, while those coming from the Omicron-hit countries will have to carry out mandatory Covid-19 test on arrival in India and stay in an isolation facility if tested positive.
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