A negative COVID-19 report will be a must for passengers arriving in India from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand from January 1, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Thursday.

The COVID-19 test must be conducted within 72 hours of undertaking the journey to India and the negative report from the RT-PCR test has to be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal before their departure, the minister said.

This requirement is in addition to the random testing of international passengers on their arrival in India irrespective of their port of departure.

Last week, the government made random coronavirus testing mandatory for two per cent of passengers arriving on each international flight.

Already many countries, including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Italy have announced testing requirements for passengers from China.

The government ramped up its surveillance against Covid-19 amid a spike in coronavirus cases in some countries, including China, and tightened Covid guidelines and asked states and Union territories to prepare for any eventuality.

According to the Union health ministry data on Thursday, India recorded 268 new coronavirus infections, while the active cases increased to 3,552.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 0.11 per cent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.17 per cent, the ministry said.