Travellers from these international locations must get an RT-PCR take a look at completed inside 72 hours of enterprise the journey to India, and should add the Covid-negative report on the Air Suvidha portal, the ministry mentioned.

RT-PCR take a look at has been made obligatory for flyers coming from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from 1st January 2023. They must add their stories on the Air Suvidha portal earlier than journey.

— Dr Mansukh Mandaviya (@mansukhmandviya) December 29, 2022

This can be along with the random testing of two per cent of all worldwide travellers being carried out in any respect ports throughout India.

China and another international locations have seen an uptick in Covid-19 instances in latest weeks.

Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya held digital conferences with representatives of pharmaceutical corporations to assessment availability of the medication wanted for Covid-19 administration, in addition to the manufacturing capacities of the businesses.

The corporations have been requested to watch the manufacturing and availability of the lively pharmaceutical elements (APIs) wanted for such medication. They had been additionally requested to maintain an in depth watch on the worldwide provide chain of APIs.

Health ministry officers mentioned India is in a significantly better place now than initially of the pandemic, with many APIs wanted for manufacturing medication resembling paracetamol, azithromycin and dexamethasone being produced throughout the nation itself.

“Now, the fear of India running out of essential medicines is not there. We have started manufacturing many APIs ourselves and several others are produced by countries other than China (which is witnessing a Covid-19 surge),” an official mentioned.

At the assembly with pharmaceutical corporations, minister Mandaviya mentioned, “India’s pharmaceutical industry is robust, resilient and responsive. It is due to its strength that we could not only meet our own demand during the pandemic, but also be in a position to supply medicines to 150 countries.”