India to ease travel curbs for international travellers from today, to lift quarantine requirements
Passengers coming to India from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Nepal, Belarus, Lebanon, Armenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Hungary, and Serbia, will follow the new guidelines.
FollowAccording to the revised guidelines shared recently by the Indian government, fully vaccinated international travellers to India shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine from today.
The decision is for travellers who are coming from countries that India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of World Health Organization (WHO) approved Covid-19 vaccines and shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine and testing.
They will, however, have to produce a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. These guidelines for international arrivals supersede all others issued on and after February 17 this year, the Union health ministry has said.
“The global trajectory of Covid-19 pandemic continues to decline with certain regional variations. The need to monitor the continuously changing nature of virus and the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) must still remain in focus,” the ministry said.
“The existing guidelines (issued on 17th February 2021 with subsequent addendums) for international arrivals in India have been formulated taking a risk-based approach. In view of increasing vaccination coverage across the globe and the changing nature of the pandemic, the existing guidelines for international arrivals in India have been reviewed,” it added.
Passengers coming to India from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Nepal, Belarus, Lebanon, Armenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Hungary, and Serbia, will follow the new guidelines.
Meanwhile, additional measures will be followed for passengers arriving in India from countries at-risk, which include South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
Here are the fresh guidelines for those planning to travel:
· The test should be conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.
· All passengers will be advised to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile devices. Airlines will only allow boarding to those passengers who have filled in the Self Declaration Form on the Air Suvidha portal, and have uploaded the negative RT-PCR test report.
· Submit self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel.
· If partially or not vaccinated, the travellers need to undertake measures which include submission of sample for post-arrival Covid-19 test at the point of arrival after which they will be allowed to leave the airport, home quarantine for seven days, re-test on the eighth day of arrival in India and if negative, further self monitor their health for next seven days.
· At the time of boarding the flight, only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board after thermal screening.
