New Delhi: Amid the massive spike in Omicron cases across India over the last few days, the South Western Railway, Hubballi, on Friday, announced that irrespective of vaccination status, only passengers with a negative RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours prior to boarding will be allowed to board the trains from Goa to Karnataka.
The South Western Railway also made it mandatory for the students and the public, who are regular travellers from Goa to Karnataka for various reasons, to undergo an RT-PCR test once in 15 days and possess the negative report.
Earlier, on Wednesday, the Karnataka government had made it compulsory for everyone travelling from Goa to carry a negative RT-PCR test report of not more than 72 hours old before entering the southern state. This rule has also been made applicable for those boarding Karnataka-bound flights or connecting flights from Goa.
“The concerned airlines will issue boarding passes only to the passengers carrying negative RT-PCR certificate not older than 72 hours (3 days). Similarly, railway authorities will be responsible for ensuring that all passengers travelling by trains from Goa to Karnataka carry negative RT-PCR certificates,” read the government statement.
The order further stated that for those passengers travelling by bus from Goa to Karnataka, the bus conductors will be asked to ensure that they carry a negative RT-PCR test report not older than the last three days.
India has been witnessing a Covid surge and the numbers have seen an unprecedented rise for a third consecutive day.
The country logged 1,17,100 fresh cases and 302 people lost their lives in the last 24 hours, while 30,836 recoveries were made in the time period.
The daily positivity rate stands at 7.74%. The active cases in the country are 3,71,363, the total recoveries so far have been 3,43,71,845 and the death toll is 4,83,178.