Health minister Dr Adham Baba said the proposal would be presented at the special meeting of the National Security Council later today.

“This is an important policy decision and we want the government to take immediate action,” he told a weekly press conference on Covid-19 here today.

International media recently reported that India’s capital has announced a lockdown following a ferocious new Covid-19 wave with more than 300,000 fresh daily cases, believed to have been caused by the double-mutant variant of the virus.

Adham said the ministry of health would also propose that all travellers arriving from countries that have reported the spread of new variants of concern (VOC) to undergo compulsory quarantine for 14 days from the current 10.

“It will be made compulsory for them to undergo quarantine at the gazetted locations only. This proposal follows concerns that the symptoms from the mutant variants will emerge on the 10th or 11th day,” he said.

Adham said the quarantine period was aimed at preventing the spread of new cases caused by the VOC.

“We have two options. Travellers on direct flights from VOC countries will be compelled to the 14-day quarantine, while for transit passengers, the quarantine period will be calculated on the day they arrived in the country,” he said.

According to a World Health Organization report, there are three types of VOC, namely the B.1.351 which was first reported in South Africa, B.1.1.7 from the UK, and B.1.1.28 or P1 from Brazil and Japan.