In the wake of increasing COVID-19 cases in the country, the Gujarat government on Saturday made negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test reports mandatory for all those arriving from other states.
In view of this, those entering Gujarat from other states must have undergone an RT-PCR test within 72 hours before coming and carry a negative report, it said.
Earlier, the government had made negative test reports mandatory only for those coming from neighbouring Maharashtra which has been worst hit by the pandemic.
Notably, Gujarat is among the few states that have recorded the highest surge of COVID-19 cases in the recent past. The order will come into force from April 1.
"The coronavirus infection rate is increasing in many states of the country. It is also seen that the prevalence of COVID-19 is high among those who have travel history," the state health department said in a notification.
Ahmedabad and Surat have been the worst-affected cities of Gujarat. The state recorded 2,190 new cases on Friday, highest since the start of the pandemic.
The state on Saturday reported its highest single-day rise in new COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic with the addition of 2,276 infections, taking its tally to 2,98,596.
Gujarat COVID-19 tally
The overall toll in the state went up to 4,884, the state health department said.
A total of 1,534 people were discharged from hospitals in Gujarat during the day, taking the total count of recoveries to 2,83,241.
The number of active cases in Gujarat has risen to 10,871, the health department said in a release.
At 760, Surat recorded the highest number of new cases in the state during the day.
This is followed by 612 cases in Ahmedabad, 326 in Vadodara and 172 in Rajkot.
2,98,973 people were given COVID-19 vaccination during the day.
A total of 44,29,566 people have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Gujarat so far.
6,29,707 beneficiaries have received the second dose, the release said.
