India will make Covid-19 molecular tests mandatory for people arriving directly or indirectly from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil in a bid to contain the spread of more infectious virus variants found in those countries.
India, which has reported the highest number of overall Covid-19 cases after the United States, detected the South African variant in four people last month and the Brazilian one in one person this month, according to Reuters.
The government has said the South African and Brazilian strains can more easily infect a person's lungs than the UK mutation. India has so far reported 187 cases of infection with the UK variant.
The government said airlines would be required from next week to segregate inbound travellers from those countries.
