Covid-19: Indians told to mask up amid China coronavirus surge

India's health minister has called for a return to Covid-appropriate behaviour, including wearing masks in public, as the country steps up surveillance of cases.

Top health officials have also asked people to get vaccinated and take booster doses.

India had relaxed its mask-wearing rules earlier this year after a drop in infection levels.

But a surge in cases in neighbouring China has put the country on alert.

Over the past few months, India reported four Covid-19 cases caused by BF.7, the Omicron subvariant linked to a spike in cases in China.

The cases - three in Gujarat state and one in Odisha - were detected in July, September and November and the patients have recovered, health officials have said.

According to government data, India currently has only around 3,400 active coronavirus cases, but reports of the surge in China have created a sense of fear among many people.

Several experts have said that India - which witnessed two deadly waves of Covid in 2020 and 2021 - does not have reason to panic.

On Thursday, India's health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in parliament that though cases in China were rising, those in India were "depleting". He added that the ministry was closely monitoring new variants and advised states to increase genome sequencing.

Earlier this week, the federal government had asked states to send samples of all Covid positive patients to labs runs by a health ministry forum which monitors various strains of Covid in India.

Mr Mandaviya also asked states to encourage people to follow social distancing and other rules during the upcoming festive season.

Officials have now started conducting random Covid-19 tests on international passengers at airports .

India had relaxed air travel guidelines in November, making it optional - "though preferable" - for passengers to wear masks on flights and for international passengers to be fully vaccinated. There has been no official announcement about a change in air travel guidelines yet.

On Wednesday, Mr Mandaviya had chaired a high-level meeting with health officials to review the Covid situation in the country and appealed to people wear masks, maintain social distancing, wash hands frequently and get vaccinated.

Over 2.2 billion Covid vaccine doses have been administered so far in the country, but only 27% of the population have taken the booster dose - which India calls a "precaution dose" - so far.

Chief ministers of several states have been reviewing their preparedness to deal with infections if needed.

Later on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a meeting to review the situation.