India plans to make negative Covid test mandatory for passengers from high caseload countries

India is planning to make a Covid negative test report mandatory for passengers arriving from countries with a high number of cases, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said during an interview with news channel NewsX on Friday.

"In the next one week, selected countries will be identified where the caseload is higher today," Mandaviya said. "People from there who come to India will have to upload their RT-PCR reports and only then come."

The passengers will have to upload their reports on a government website and undergo thermal screening upon landing, Mandaviya said.

India will start randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at its airports for Covid, Mandaviya told the parliament on Thursday.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked states to look out for any new variants of the virus and urged people to wear masks in crowded areas, citing an increase in Covid cases in China and other parts of the globe.