Fully vaccinated travellers who are coming to India and with which India has made reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO-approved vaccines shall be allowed to leave airports and need not undergo home quarantine and testing from Monday, according to revised guidelines for International tourists.
However, the tourists need to produce negative covid19 certificates of RT-PCR reports. The new guidelines will supersede all others issued on February 17 said the Union Ministry.
“The global trajectory of Covid-19 pandemic continues to decline with certain regional variations. The need to monitor the continuously changing nature of the virus and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) must remain in focus,” said the ministry.
Added to that, the statement continued, “The existing guidelines (issued on 17th February 2021 with subsequent addendums) for international arrivals in India have been formulated taking a risk-based approach. Given increasing vaccination coverage across the globe and the changing nature of the pandemic, the existing guidelines for international arrivals in India have been reviewed.”
Travellers need to follow the latest SOP for travelling to India.
- If partially vaccinated or non-vaccinated tourists need to undertake measures which include submission of sample for a post-covid-19 test at the point of arrival after which they will be allowed to leave the airport. They also need to quarantine for 7 days, re-test of covid19 once again on the 8th day and if found negative, the traveller needs to self monitor their health for the next 7 days.
- The new guidelines are to be compiled with international travellers as well those to be followed by airlines, points of entry for risk profiling of the passengers.
- The SOP will be valid from Monday until further orders. Based on the risk assessment, this document shall be reviewed from time to time, the ministry said.
- All travellers need to fill the self-declaration form for the Online Air Suvidha portal before the scheduled travel and upload a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. This test should have been conducted within 72 hours before undertaking the journey.
- “Travellers from countries excluding those countries at risk will be allowed to leave the airport and shall self-monitor their health for 14 days’ post-arrival. This applies to travellers from all countries including countries with which reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO approved Covid-19 vaccines also exist,” said the statement.
- If the traveller is experiencing symptoms then they are suggested for covid19 retest and immediately self-isolate or visit the nearest primary health centre.
