Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 7: Amid a surge in the Omicron cases, the Centre released a revised guideline for foreign passengers on Friday, and announced a seven-day mandatory home quarantine for all those arriving from abroad. The new policy will take effect on January 11th.
All European countries, including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Israel, Congo, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Zambia, have been included to the list of ‘at-risk’ countries.
The list of ‘At-risk’ countries from where travellers would need to follow additional measures on arrival in India, including post-arrival testing pic.twitter.com/47CUKuSMMq
— ANI (@ANI) January 7, 2022
As per the order issued by the ministry of Health and Family Welfare , travelers will be subjected to an RT-OCR test after completing their home quarantine, according to the updated guideline. The new policy comes a day after 125 passengers on a chartered flight from Italy to Amritsar tested positive when they arrived at the Amritsar airport.
International travelers arriving through seaports/ landports will also have to undergo the same protocol as above, except that facility for online registration is not available for such passengers currently. Such passengers shall submit the self-declaration from to the concerned authorities of the government of India at arrival.
Meanwhile, Children under five years of age are exempted from both pre and post-arrival testing. However, if found symptomatic for COVID-19 on arrival or during home quarantine, they shall undergo testing and treated as per laid down protocol.
The new rules were announced on a day India reported 1,17,100 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours. Cases have gone from 10,000 to more than a lakh in just a week.