Omicron makes India revises COVID rules for visitors |
The Indian government issued revised guidelines for international arrivals in India coming into effect from December 1. The revised guidelines mandate submitting 14 days` travel details and uploading a negative RT-PCR test report on the Air Suvidha portal before the journey. As per Health Ministry`s guidelines, travelers from `countries at-risk` will need to take the Covid test post-arrival and wait for the results at the airport. If tested negative, they`ll follow home quarantine for seven days. A re-test on the 8th day and, if negative, further self-monitor for the next seven days. Travelers from countries excluding the `countries at risk` will be allowed to leave the airport and should self-monitor their health for 14 days. A sub-section - that is 5% of total flight passengers - should undergo post-arrival testing at random at the airport on arrival. The new Covid-19 variant `Omicron` has triggered global alarm as governments around the world scrambled to impose new travel curbs. The new strain, first detected in South Africa, has now spread in more than 10 countries, including Canada, the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Australia. Because of fears that the new variant has the potential to be more resistant to the protection offered by vaccines, there are growing concerns around the world that the pandemic and associated lockdown restrictions will persist for far longer than hoped. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also warned the country that Covid is not over yet. After a marathon 2-hour review meeting on 27 November with country`s top officials, Modi urged people to remain vigilant and adopt all possible precautions to prevent the spread of the deadly disease. The Indian government listed a number of countries in the `at risk` category. These include South Africa, China, Botswana, those in Europe including the UK, Brazil, Israel, Bangladesh, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Israel, and Hong Kong. The government said it will make a decision on the effective date for the resumption of commercial international passenger flights after reviewing the "evolving global scenario" over the Omicron variant of coronavirus. India had only very recently decided to resume commercial international flights from December 15.
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