• India will randomly test 2% of foreign visitors for Covid-19.
• Most Indians quit wearing masks after Covid requirements were lowered.
• China braces for illness outbreak after abandoning zero-Covid.

India is on high alert for any new varieties that could emerge from the surge of infections sweeping neighboring China, therefore the country’s health minister has encouraged the people to take precautions against Covid-19, including being immunized and wearing masks.

India’s Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, informed Parliament on Thursday that the country would start randomly testing 2% of foreign visitors who arrived at the country’s airports.

Mandaviya had previously requested that local authorities send positive samples to labs looking for new Covid strains.

“States have been told to make people aware of (the need to) wear masks, use hand sanitizers, maintain respiratory hygiene and social distancing,” Mandaviya said, as he encouraged Indians to receive vaccines or booster shots.

Speaking Wednesday at a meeting to review the Covid situation in the country amid rising cases in several Asian nations, Mandaviya said: “Covid is not over yet. I have directed all concerned to be on the alert, and strengthen surveillance.”

After a decline in infections, India, a nation of 1.3 billion, loosened its Covid restrictions early this year, and most people have stopped wearing masks outside.

The Indian minister’s warnings come as China braces for the spread of infections from its largest cities to its vast rural areas as a result of its hasty and unprepared withdrawal from the zero-Covid strategy earlier this month.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), expressed worry on Wednesday about the increase in cases in China, noting that he was concerned about “growing reports of severe disease.”

“In order to make a comprehensive risk assessment of the situation on the ground, WHO needs more detailed information on disease severity, hospital admissions and requirements for ICU support,” Tedros told a news conference.

According to a research published last week, the spike may cause up to 1 million deaths in China and is also expected to overwhelm many local health systems there.

Chinese experts have cautioned that things could become worse before they get better. China is already experiencing the first of three anticipated waves of infections this winter, according to Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who made this announcement last week.

A second wave of Covid-19 struck India last year, killing tens of thousands of people and overwhelming the healthcare system.

According to data from Johns Hopkins University, India has since delivered more than 2 billion doses of the Covid vaccine, with approximately 75% of the country’s population having done so.

India experienced a “steady reduction” in cases, with an average of 150 infections per day nationwide as of December 19, according to the Health Ministry.

“We are prepared to manage any situation,” Health Minister Mandaviya said in a Twitter post Wednesday.

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