Karnataka makes covid test mandatory for flyers from UK

Bengaluru: The Karnataka government on Monday announced mandatory Covid-19 screening and RT-PCR tests for all passengers arriving from the UK in the Bengaluru and Mangaluru international airports.

The new protocol has been in place in the backdrop of the Union government suspending all flights to and from the UK till December 31 due to the new strain of coronavirus that is fast spreading in the UK.

According to the new protocol, all passengers departing from the UK and arriving in international flights to Karnataka should give their samples for the RT-PCR test on arrival. “Those who are RT-PCR positive shall be under home isolation and positive samples should be sent to Nimhans for molecular testing. Passengers who test Covid negative shall be under strict home quarantine for 14 days,” the health department said. It has asked both the airports to provide the list of passengers who arrived from the UK from December 7 onwards till date.

772 new Covid cases
Karnataka on Monday reported 772 new cases of Covid-19, taking the total number of people who contracted the virus to 910,241. The total number of active cases in Karnataka stand at 14,001.

The number of deaths has continued to reduce drastically, with the state recording seven deaths in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 12,016.

Bengaluru Urban accounted for 363 new cases, taking the city’s total cases to 383,231. Nearly 65% of Karnataka’s active cases are in the capital. The city also recorded five deaths, that took the death toll to 4,273. The state’s case positivity rate is 1.04% and case fatality rate is 0.90%.