Omicron Scare: India Revises COVID Guidelines For International Travellers

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry released revised guidelines for international passengers arriving in India effective from December 1 in view of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.

According to the guidelines, submitting 14-day travel details and uploading a negative RT-PCR test report on the Air Suvidha portal before the journey have been made mandatory, according to India Today.

According to the Health Ministry, travellers from ‘countries at-risk’ will have to undergo COVID test after arrival and wait at the airport for the results. If tested negative, passengers will go for home quarantine for seven days.

The guidelines say a re-test on the eighth day and, if found negative, further self-monitoring for the next seven days.

Travellers from nations other than the ‘countries at risk’ will be permitted to leave the airport and should self-monitor for 14 days. Five per cent of total flight passengers must undergo post-arrival testing at random at the airport.

The Centre listed a number of countries in the ‘at risk’ category on Saturday. These countries include South Africa, China, Botswana, those in Europe including the UK, Brazil, Israel, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Mauritius, New Zealand, Israel and Hong Kong.

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