India orders random Covid testing for travellers after BF.7 variant cases surge in China

Cases of the sub-variant of Omicron, the dominant coronavirus strain, have risen sharply in Beijing

Prime Minister Narendra Modi prepares to address media on the Covid situation in India. AP

India has begun randomly testing international passengers arriving at its airports for Covid-19, citing an increase in cases in neighbouring China.

The new policy was announced in Parliament on Thursday by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, who said the government might make testing mandatory for all international arrivals if necessary, but had no plans yet to ban flights from countries where new cases are being reported.

India has so four confirmed four cases of the BF.7 sub-variant of Omicron — widely reported in China's capital Beijing and detected in a number of countries — three in the western state of Gujarat and one Odisha in the east.

BF.7 has a high transmissibility. One carrier can infect up to 10 people, experts say. It also has a short incubation period.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has already stepped up measures to track new strains and briefed states to test all samples from patients found to have Covid-19.

Mr Modi convened a high-level meeting on Thursday to review the Covid situation and ordered states to ensure health facilities had adequate infrastructure, staffing and supplies of oxygen and ventilators.

He also called for people to take precautions such as wearing masks, and for booster doses of vaccine for the elderly and other vulnerable groups.

India relaxed its mask-wearing rules this month, as infections ebbed following huge vaccination drives and herd immunity, but a renewed global outbreak, particularly in China, has reignited concerns in the country.

India suffered from massive waves of Covid-19 following the outbreak of the pandemic in 2019, which killed at least 530,000 people and infected about 44 million in the world's second most populous nation.

As many as 185 new coronavirus infections were reported on Thursday, although active cases have fallen to 3,402, the Health Ministry reported.

A health worker collects a swab sample after a sharp surge in Omicron variant cases, in Chennai, India. EPA

The health department in Maharashtra, one of the worst-hit states during the peak of the pandemic, has asked the municipal and district authorities to increase Covid-19 testing.

Some opposition politicians have also demanded that indirect flights from China are stopped.

Although direct routes have been closed between the two countries since the pandemic's outbreak, there are connecting flights from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Myanmar.

Global worries

Cases have globally remained stable at 3.3 million in a week but China has been battling a fresh wave of the pandemic triggered by the BF.7 variant since it ended nearly three years of lockdown earlier this month.

On Thursday it reported nearly 6,000 cases over the previous 24 hours.

Unverified images on social media and television channels showed hospitals flooded with patients, some lying on the floor, and workers in Hazmat suits at crematoriums that are reportedly overwhelmed with an influx of bodies.

A Covid patient is taken to an emergency ward at Chongqing Medical University, south-western China. AFP

Chinese authorities, however, earlier this week said only those people confirmed to have died of respiratory failure caused by the virus would now be counted under Covid-19 death statistics.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, chief of the World Health Organisation, on Wednesday said he was “very concerned” about an unprecedented wave of the pandemic in China.

The global health body has urged Beijing to accelerate vaccination of the most vulnerable and has appealed for detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and intensive care requirements.

The US, South Korea and Brazil have also recorded a surge in cases in recent weeks, causing global concern.

Japan has seen a sharp rise, too. It recorded 200,000 cases in the last 24 hours, although health authorities said the spike there was driven by the B.A5 sub-variant of Omicron.