India revises guidelines for international passengers — Details

The Indian health ministry has decided to revise guidelines for international passengers and the fresh rules came into force from January 22. According to the new guidelines, all international air travellers should submit factual details in a self-declaration form of their health before travel on the Air Suvidha portal, including the last 14 days’ travel history.

Uploading a negative RT-PCR report not older than 72 hours of their travel is mandatory. Air travellers are also directed to give an undertaking on the portal or to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, before their journey. Those who need test on arrival, should preferably pre-book it on the Air Suvidha portal.

Passengers arriving from high-risk countries should submit their samples on arrival and await the report at the airport before taking any connecting flights. Those who test negative must follow a strict seven-day home quarantine and undertake RT-PCR test on the eighth day.

Information regarding their health condition must be uploaded on the Air Suvidha portal along with the test report of the eighth day. For the next seven days, they must monitor their health and if found positive, their samples must be sent for genome sequencing.

The guidelines also stated that two percent of the total flight passengers should undergo post-arrival testing randomly on arrival at the airport. The passengers of each flight shall be identified by the airlines concerned and the same quarantine rules as those arriving from high-risk countries will apply. International air travellers arriving from sea and land ports will also have to follow the same procedure for testing and quarantine.