Travelling to India? Here are do’s, don’ts for international arrivals from today

The central government has also allowed states to consider additional requirements with regards to testing, quarantine and isolation for international travellers as per their risk assessment.

The Union ministry of health and family welfare last week issued a fresh set of guidelines for international flyers travelling to India amid increasing evidence that mutant variants of the coronavirus are in circulation in several countries.

Indian airports saw 15.79 mn passengers in December.ht (MINT_PRINT)

So far, three SARSCoV-2 variants —(i) UK Variant [VOC 202012/01 (B.1.1.7)] (ii) South Africa variant [501Y.V2 (B.1.351)] and (iii) Brazil variant [P.1 (P.1)]—have been detected in 86, 44 and 15 countries respectively. All three variants have demonstrated increased transmissibility, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The central government has also allowed states to consider additional requirements with regards to testing, quarantine and isolation for international travellers as per their risk assessment.

Here’s the fresh set of guidelines applicable from today for all international travellers coming to India:

1. All travellers, except those coming through flights originating from the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East, submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel and must upload a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. This test should have been conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey
2. They should also give an undertaking on the portal or to the ministry of civil aviation, through concerned airlines before they are allowed to undertake the journey that they would abide by the decision of the appropriate government authority to undergo home quarantine/ self-monitoring of their health for 14 days.
3. Arrival in India without a negative report shall be allowed only for those travelling to India in the exigency of death in the family. If they wish to seek such exemption, they shall apply to the online portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) at least 72 hours before boarding following which the government will take the call and that would be final.
4. At the time of boarding the flight, only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board after the thermal screening. All possible measures need to be taken to ensure physical distancing during boarding and deboarding. Suitable precautionary measures such as environmental sanitation and disinfection shall be ensured at the airports.
5. All passengers have been advised to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones.
6. While onboard the flight, passengers, airline staff and crew need to take precautionary measures such as wearing masks, environmental hygiene, respiratory hygiene, hand hygiene etc.
7. At the time of arrival, thermal screening would be carried out in respect of all the passengers by the health officials present at the airport. The self-declaration form filled online shall be shown to the airport health staff and the passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility as per health protocol.
8. All other passengers who have uploaded RT-PCR negative certificates on Air Suvidha portal will be allowed to leave the airport/ take transit flights and will be required to undertake self-monitoring of their health for 14 days.
9. All the passengers will be provided with a list of the national and state-level surveillance officers and the respective call centre numbers so that they can inform in case they develop symptoms at any time during the quarantine or self-monitoring.
10. International travellers arriving through seaports or land ports will also have to undergo the same protocol, except that facility for online registration is not available for such passengers currently. They need to submit the self-declaration form to the concerned authorities of the government at seaports or land ports on arrival.