West Bengal makes negative COVID-19 test report mandatory for air passengers from 4 states

West Bengal on Wednesday made RT-PCR COVID-19 tests mandatory for passengers travelling by flights from these four states - Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala and Karnataka amid rise in coronavirus cases with effect from 12 noon February 27 onwards.

Kolkata: Amid rise in coronavirus cases, the West Bengal government on Wednesday made RT-PCR COVID-19 tests mandatory for passengers travelling by air from these four states - Maharashtra, Telangana, Kerala and Karnataka.

Passengers will need to carry a negative COVID-19 negative RT-PCR report conducted within 72 hours of flight departure, with effect from 12 noon February 27 onwards.

People travelling by by trains or buses have been exempted from this.

Meanwhile, in West Bengal two people succumbed to coronavirus in a span of 24 hours, taking the death toll to 10,253, the health department said in a bulletin. The total tally mounted to 5,74,099 after 189 new COVID-19 cases were recorded.

Earlier, the Union Health Ministry informed that it has deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to as many as 10 states to work closely with the states and UT administration and determine the cause for the recent surge in the number of coronavirus cases.

The three-member multidisciplinary teams will be sent to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir for requisite COVID-19 control measures to break the chain of transmission, as per an official release.