India will require a negative Covid-19 test result from travellers arriving from Thailand, China, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong, the country’s health minister said on Saturday.

Passengers from those countries would be put under quarantine if they showed symptoms of Covid-19 or tested positive, the minister said.

Passengers from the countries in question will have to declare their health status by logging into the Air Suvidha website.

“After landing in India, they will undergo thermal screening and we have issued an order for them to be quarantined if found positive or with fever on their arrival in the country,” the minister was quoted as saying by the Indian Express.

It is not clear why Thailand was included on the list of high-risk countries.

India, which has reported the second highest number of confirmed Covid cases in the world over the past three years, will start randomly testing 2% of international passengers arriving at its airports.

The central government this week also asked Indian states to look out for any new variants of the virus and urged people to wear masks in crowded areas, citing an increase in Covid cases in China and other parts of the globe.