COVID19 test
Representative image.

In view of the rising number of COVID19 cases in some parts of the country, the Assam government has made it mandatory that air passengers, coming from Mumbai and Bengaluru to Assam, will have to produce RT-PCR negative reports.

However, the order to come into effect from April 9, 2021.

The principal secretary to the health department of the Assam government has issued an order in this regard on Saturday.

“All air passengers from Mumbai and Bengaluru disembarking in any airport in Assam will mandatorily need to carry a negative RT-PCR report, conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey,”  the order said.

The test report should be verifiable using QR code or otherwise, it said.

Airlines are to allow boarding only to those passengers at Mumbai and Bengaluru, who are carrying the negative RT-PCR test report, the health department’s order said.

“Any passenger from Mumbai and Bengaluru, who arrives without satisfactory RT-PCR test report will have to undergo paid COVID-19 testing at airport and will wait in designated location inside airport premises at his own expense till his test result is available,” the order said.

If the COVID19 test result is found positive, the passenger will be shifted for home isolation or taken to hospital, as per treatment protocol.

This order will come into force with effect from April 9, 2021, the principal secretary to the health department said.

In another order, the principal secretary to the health department of the Assam government said in pursuance of the department’s order No HLB 174/2020/31, dated April 3, 2021, the “maximum rate chargeable for RT-PCR test at the airports in Assam is fixed at Rs 500/ for all approved laboratories.”

“This order comes into force with immediate effect,” the principal secretary to health said.