- Saturday, April 20, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
TRAVELLERS who have been fully jabbed and coming from a country with which India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of Covid-19 vaccines approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) can exit the airport and need not serve home quarantine and testing. They will, however, have to produce a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. The new rule, as per the revised guidelines for international arrivals released on Wednesday (20), comes into effect from October 25.
Partially or not vaccinated travellers have to undertake measures that include submission of samples for post-arrival Covid-19 test at the point of arrival and will be allowed to leave the airport only after then. They have to serve home quarantine for seven days, take a test on the eighth day on arrival in India and even if they test negative, would have to self-monitor their health for seven days.
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According to the Indian health ministry, the latest guidelines for international arrivals supersede all guidelines issued on the subject on and after February 17 this year.
“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 evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) must still remain in focus. The existing guidelines (issued on 17th February 2021 with subsequent addendums) for international arrivals in India have been formulated taking a risk-based approach,” it said, adding, “In view increasing vaccination coverage across the globe and the changing nature of the pandemic, the existing guidelines for international arrivals in India have been reviewed.”
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The new document provides that protocols need to be complied with international travellers as well those to be followed by airlines, points of entry (airports, seaports and land border) for risk-profiling of passengers, Press Trust of India reported.
“This Standard Operating Procedure shall be valid from October 25 till further orders. Based on the risk assessment, this document shall be reviewed from time to time,” the ministry said.
According to the health ministry, India has signed agreements for mutual recognition of nationally or WHO-recognised Covid-19 vaccines with 11 countries and they are: the UK, France, Germany, Nepal, Belarus, Lebanon, Armenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Hungary and Serbia.
