New Delhi, 10th Feb 2022:
In the latest guidelines issued by Ministry of Health & Welfare, Govt. of India, international travelers are bit relaxed with implementation of more friendly travel policies. The new rule will be applicable from 14th February 20022 onwards. The new travel rules allows passengers of 82 countries to upload their double dose vaccine certificate of Covid-19 on a mutually accepted basis. The Union health ministry has also removed the list of at-risk countries and replaced it with another list of countries in respect of which primary vaccination schedule completion certificate is allowed to be uploaded. These include Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Maldives, New Zealand, Netherlands, Qatar, Singapore, Switzerland, UK and USA. China and UAE are among those not on the list of 82 countries as of now.
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted,”The demarcation of countries ‘at-risk’ & other countries is removed. Accordingly need for giving samples on port of arrival & waiting till the result is obtained from countries ‘at-risk’ is dispensed with.”
The new guidelines are as follows:
*No need for mandatory testing on arrival for travellers from “at-risk” countries.
*Samples from 2 per cent of the travellers will be collected at random after de-boarding.
*Passengers can give their samples and leave the airport. They do not have to wait for the results.
*Passengers will no longer be required to do a seven-day mandatory quarantine. They will have to monitor their health for 14 days.
*Passengers will no longer be required to get tested on the eighth day after arrival and upload their test results to the government portal.
The vaccination certificates of travellers from countries that have an agreement with India on mutual recognition of certificates for vaccination using nationally recognised or World Health Organization (WHO) recognised vaccines. The vaccination certificates of travellers from countries that do not have an agreement but exempt fully vaccinated Indians from quarantine will also be accepted on the “basis of reciprocity”.
