On May 21, the government had made it mandatory for all passengers to submit the self-declaration form before a flight 

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry has told the airlines that passengers who submit a self-declaration form that they have not tested positive for COVID-19 during the three weeks prior to the departure date are allowed to take their flight, officials said.

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On May 21, the government had made it mandatory for all passengers to submit the self-declaration form before a flight stating that they did not test positive for COVID-19 during two months prior to the departure date.

The officials told PTI that as there are a large number of people in India now who have recovered from the deadly virus, a need was felt to update the self-declaration form to avoid any hardships to them.

Therefore, a few days back, the government told the airlines that passengers need to give a declaration that "they have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the last three weeks" prior to the flight, the officials said.

"Persons who have recovered from COVID-19 and who fulfil the three-week criteria will be allowed to travel by flights if they show a COVID-recovery or COVID-discharge certificate from their hospital," they mentioned.

Out of around 8.2 lakh people who have tested positive for COVID-19 in India till now, around 5.15 lakh have recovered.

This means the recovery rate is around 63%. More than 22,000 people have died due to the virus in the country.

India resumed domestic passengers flights from May 25 after a gap of two months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Scheduled international passenger flights continue to remain suspended in the country.