Travelling to India? New COVID guidelines for International passengers released

In a major development, the Union Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that a negative RT-PCR test report for COVID-19 would be mandatory for all international passengers coming to India. As per an official statement, the test must be conducted 72 hours prior to the journey and each passenger also need to submit a declaration regarding the authenticity of the report. A comprehensive set of guidelines for foreign arrivals in India has been released.

Here is the flowchart of processes to be followed for foreign arrivals into India based on where they come from:

As per the Health Ministry guidelines, All travellers should:

• Submit self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel
• Upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report. This test should have been conducted within 72 hrs prior to undertaking the journey.
• Each passenger shall also submit a declaration with respect to authenticity of the report and will be liable for criminal prosecution, if found otherwise

Full guidelines by the Ministry of Health for foreign arrivals in India:

Guidelines for International Arrival 20 Th October 2021 by Republic World on Scribd

List of countries India considers 'Category A' and 'At-Risk' for COVID

The list of countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing countries in Europe including The United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe.

ListofCountriestobereferredtoincontextofGuidelinesforinternationalarrivalsdated20thOctober2021 by Republic World on Scribd

COVID Cases In India

Meanwhile, India reported 14,623 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 3,41,08,996, while active cases fell to 1,78,098, the lowest in 229 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. According to data updated at 8 am, the death toll has risen to 4,52,651 with 197 new fatalities. For the past 26 days, the daily increase in new Coronavirus infections has been fewer than 30,000, and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for the past 115 days. The active cases account for 0.52% of total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was 98.15%, the highest since March 2020, according to the ministry. In the last 24 hours, the active COVID-19 caseload has dropped by 5,020 cases.

COVID vaccinations in India

In addition, 41,36,142 vaccination doses were provided in the previous 24 hours. According to preliminary data, India's COVID-19 immunisation coverage has surpassed 99,12,82,283 as of 7 am on Wednesday and is all set to touch the 100 crores mark by this week. COVID-19 vaccinations were made available for the general public from March 21 including people above the age of 60 and also for certain above 45 with specified health conditions. Later, it was expanded to the age group of 45 and above from April 1 followed by people above 18 years from May 1. Along with that, the Centre is also now looking forward to launching vaccines for minors and children.