GUWAHATI: The
Assam health department has withdrawn on-arrival mandatory tests for air passengers coming from places within the state and from other NE states in view of the decreasing number of new and active cases in the state.
However,
Covid-19 test for air passengers arriving from outside the region will continue. But now, instead of going to the Covid centre at Sarusajai, passengers will be able to give their swab samples for tests at the airport itself immediately on arrival.
“Covid-19 test for incoming flight passengers will be done in Guwahati Airport itself instead of
Xarusajai. Air passengers travelling within Assam and those travelling between NE states will no longer require mandatory #COVID19 testing,” health minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted on Wednesday.
According to an earlier SOP for air passengers, those who have tested negative for Covid-19 by
RT-PCR tests within 72 hours of their arrival here are exempted for another test on arrival, but on production of the test certificate and verification at ICMR portal. Children below 10 years of age arriving from outside the state are also exempted for tests provided the child is asymptomatic.
According to NHM, Assam, based on the trend of new cases in the last seven days, the doubling time of cases in the state has increased to 822 days. The doubling time was as low as 11 days on July 7.
In the last 24 hours, the active caseload in the state has further decreased to 3329 after 242 new cases were reported and 357 patients were discharged on Tuesday. Two more patients died on Tuesday, which has taken the death toll to 966.
The cumulative positive cases recorded till Tuesday is 2,10,696 and among them 2,06,398 patients have already recovered till Tuesday.