The government of West Bengal has announced that prior RT-PCR tests and COVID-negative reports, not older than 72 hours, will be mandatory for flight passengers coming to West Bengal from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Chhattisgarh. West Bengal has also asked the Union Ministry of Civil Aviation to make this rule compulsory.
This order will be effective from 12 pm on 26 April, and comes amid a nationwide surge in COVID-19 cases, that has had a crippling impact on the healthcare infrastructure of the country and has led to multiple states reporting an acute shortage of oxygen.
This rule already exists for passengers from Maharashtra, Kerala, Karnataka, and Telangana, reported NDTV.
West Bengal, on Friday, 23 April, reported highest-ever 12,876 coronavirus cases. A day before, it had logged 11,948 cases. This comes even though, as recently as on 1 April, the state had reported only 1,274 cases.
The poll-bound state currently has over 74,700 active cases.
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