Home ›› 11 Feb 2022 ›› Front
Fully vaccinated international passengers from 82 countries will be permitted quarantine-free entry from February 14, the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has said on Thursday.
The requirement of compulsory on-arrival testing for passengers from certain countries identified as “at-risk” will also be removed. This had led to over-crowding at airports and forced passengers to pay for costlier rapid RT-PCR tests to avoid long queues, Indian media reported.
“The ‘at-risk’ tag for countries has also been removed. Accordingly, the need for giving samples on port of arrival and waiting till the result is obtained from countries ‘at-risk’ is dispensed with,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya tweeted.
He added that the need for undertaking RT-PCR test on 8th day and uploading the same on Air Suvidha portal will also be discontinued.
According to the latest guidelines of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, quarantine-free entry for fully vaccinated passengers from certain countries is based on the principle of reciprocity.
Under the latest guidelines passengers from 82 countries which include Sweden, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, Spain, US, Turkey, UK. Thailand, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, Qatar, Canada, Bangladesh, Oman and Australia among others will only need to show proof of vaccination.
A passenger travelling to India will have to upload a self-declaration form along with either a negative report or a certificate of completion of full vaccination.
The tourism industry estimates that Covid-19 has led to a loss of 150 lakh crore since March 2020. Before travel restrictions were imposed due to Covid-19 globally, India would witness 1.1 crore inbound tourists and 2.7 crore outbound tourists per annum, which is now down to a trickle though latest government figures are not available.
