The government of Maharashtra on Thursday revised its guidelines for passengers arriving in the state.
It was on January 30, 2020 that the third year medical student from Wuhan university tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the country's first COVID-19 patient, days after she had returned home following semester holidays.
Instead of seven-day home quarantine as mandated earlier, all travellers will self-monitor their health for 14 days after their arrival.
All-rounder Krunal Pandya tested positive for COVID-19, forcing the postponement of Tuesday's second T20 International between Sri Lanka and India in Colombo.
The ministry said this will also ensure early detection, isolation and hospitalisation of such "false" negative cases. It has also been reiterated in the joint letter that while the RAT is being used to increase access and availability of testing in the field, RT-PCR remains the gold standard of COVID tests, the ministry said.
Indians being evacuated from Ukraine have been exempted from pre-boarding RT-PCR test, providing Covid vaccination certificates and uploading those on the Air Suvidha portal, the health ministry said.
Pune's Mylab Discovery Solutions' CoviSelf, which gives results in 15 minutes, gets ICMR nod
The Tamil Nadu government on Monday permitted the conduct of Jallikattu, a popular traditional bull-taming sport in the State, during the Pongal festival with stringent COVID-19 safety norms in place.
The cruise liner, where the Narcotics Control Bureau busted a high-profile rave party in October last year, was carrying hordes of New Year revellers.
The most striking aspect of this study was that a large proportion of the Indian population was asymptomatic for COVID infection and the age group 26-35 had the maximum number of asymptomatic people, the researchers said.
One challenge for many laboratories in ramping up is the shortage of trained manpower for collecting samples, report Sohini Das, Vinay Umarji and Virendra Singh Rawat.
At a meeting of the business advisory committee of Lok Sabha, which has floor leaders of all parties besides the government representatives and is chaired by the Speaker, most political parties favoured curtailment of the session, which started on September 14 and was scheduled to conclude on October 1.
After the Maharashtra government revised the guidelines on quarantine for international passengers in view of concerns over the Omicron variant, the Centre on Wednesday asked the state to align its order with the SOPs issued by the Union Health Ministry.
India head coach Ravi Shastri and his support staff colleagues Bharat Arun and Ramakrishnan Sridhar are likely to leave for India on Wednesday provided they have two negative RT-PCR reports prior to their departure date.
The other 19 passengers who had tested positive for the viral infection were still on the ship, he said, adding that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) conducted RT-PCR tests of 1,827 people on board the cruise on Tuesday night and their reports were expected later in the day.
Thackeray directed officials to ensure that people follow health norms like wearing masks, and that violators be fined.
Both are under home isolation in Virudhunagar. Their samples would be sent to the state lab for whole genomic sequencing.
All 12 passengers carried negative Polymerase Chain Reaction COVID-19 reports but they were re-tested in line with the laid down COVID-19 safety protocols in Pakistan.
In case the test is negative, the passenger will still have to undergo seven-day home quarantine.
Amid a spike in Covid-19 cases, the Centre on Monday reviewed with states and Union territories the preparedness for pandemic management and the progress of vaccination.
In a letter to states and UTs, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan stressed on monitoring and reporting of district-wise influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory illness (SARI) cases in all health facilities on a regular basis for detecting the early rising trend of cases.
More RT-PCR test reports are awaited and the trend shows that the number of infected persons in the Kumbh Mela Kshetra is likely to climb to 2,000.
The state government has decided to designate the ESI Hospital in South Goa district for the purpose of keeping all the patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 after their arrival from the UK, he said.
The same testing technique would also be used for monitoring in green zones districts which have reported no cases till now or in the last 21 days, the Union health ministry said while issuing 'Guidelines for RT-PCR based pooled sampling for migrants/returnees from abroad/green zones'.
Two kinds of diagnostic tests are being currently used in India -- RT-PCR test and rapid antibodies test -- as per the global health norms.
India is set to play a three-match ODI series against West Indies in Ahmedabad, beginning February 6.
The Canadian government announced that this new requirement will come into effect on January 5, at which point travellers aged two and older will need to provide proof of a negative test before leaving for Canada.
Passengers should undergo RT-PCR test and be isolated in a separate unit of an institutional facility if found positive
Among other sportspersons, KT Irfan, PU Chitra, 19 other athletes test negative while the health of one positive athlete being monitored at SAI Bengaluru.
Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Thursday advised all the MPs to wear masks and follow the Covid protocol completely, in view of the increasing cases of COVID-19 in many countries across the world.
The temple city has seen a steep rise of 1,266 per cent in Covid cases over the past two weeks.
As the number of COVID cases rise in Bihar, data indicates that the state is slowing down on testing. It is also relying more on the Rapid Antigen Test than the more accurate RT-PCR test.
The fifth Test match between England and India, which starts in Manchester on Friday, is doubtful after Team India's support staff tested positive for COVID-19.
Sources at Mumbai airport said seat occupancy has declined from around 70-72 per cent to 60-64 per cent in last three-four days as passengers are postponing or cancelling trips.
Athletics and boxing are the two important disciplines whose national camps are being held at NIS, Patiala.
The Centre has deputed multi-disciplinary teams to states witnessing a surge in COVID-19 cases, including Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir, to support them in effectively tackling the pandemic.
The tests have to be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India, Mandaviya said.
The Delhi high court on Tuesday said that in case there were no guidelines issued by the Centre, it expected the city government to expeditiously consider the issue of early re-testing of international travellers who test positive for COVID-19 on arrival.
The bouquet of Covid-19 tests that most diagnostic labs are offering include antibody tests (blood tests), rapid antigen tests (point of care tests that detect the presence of an antigen from a nasal or throat swab in case of SARS-CoV-2), and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests.
The revised guidelines for international arrivals will be effective from November 22, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
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