Mizoram makes Rapid Antigen Test mandatory at border entry points
The new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for COVID-19 issued on January 6 by the Mizoram government comes into force following the recommendations of the State Level Expert Team on COVID-19 Management.
AIZAWL:
Travellers entering Mizoram will have to undergo mandatory Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) as per the new guidelines issued by the state government in the wake of detection of Omicron variant of COVID-19 in some states.
The new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for COVID-19 issued on January 6 by the Mizoram government comes into force following the recommendations of the State Level Expert Team on COVID-19 Management.
According to the revised order, all the entrants to the State will be screened for Covid-19 at the entry screening points with RAT for Covid-19 except for those who have Negative RT-PCR/TrueNat/ CBNAAT test report for Covid-19 issued by a recognised laboratory within 72 hours prior to the time of entry, or certificate of discharge from Home Isolation or Covid Care Facility issued by the competent authority within 3 months prior to the date of entry.
Persons having these certificates shall monitor themselves for any symptom of COVID-19 for 7 days, while strictly following the CAB, the order stated.
However, no symptomatic entrant shall be exempted from RAT screening, even if he/she produces any of the aforementioned certificates.
According to the order, all persons testing positive shall be isolated/ treated as per existing Covid-19 management protocol.
Further, asymptomatic persons tested negative with RAT may not be qurantined, but shall follow Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), the order stated.
Symptomatic person tested negative with RAT shall be tested with RT-PCR/ TrueNat, and shall be quarantined for a period of five days even if he/she is found negative in such a test, and be tested again with RT-PCR/TrueNat after five days.
Persons are to monitor themselves shall strictly follow CAB viz. social distancing, proper wearing of face-mask covering mouth and nose, and hand hygiene; and watch out for any of the Covid-19 symptoms such as fever, cough, loss of taste/ smell, sore throat/ throat irritation, malaise/ weakness, body ache/headache, gastro-intestinal upset, diarrhoea, dizziness and anorexia/nausea/vomiting.
Underlining the highly transmissible nature of Omicron and the preponderance of asymptomatic cases, the Centre has urged nine states, including Mizoram, and union territories to ramp up Covid testing to ensure that infected people do not spread the virus to others.
During the last 24 hours, Mizoram tested 5,820 samples, of which 502 tested positive for COVID-19, registering a single-day’s positivity rate of 8.63 per cent.
The state recorded one death within the same period, taking the state death toll to 554. Active cases as on January 6 stood at 2,527, while a total of 14,0,067 people out of the total 14,3,193 infected people have recovered from the disease.
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