All int'l travellers to go for 7-day home quarantine on arrival in India
Darpan News Desk IANS, 07 Jan, 2022 12:19 PM
New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) India on Friday revised the existing guidelines for all international arrivals in India in view of the rising Covid cases and the Omicron threat, to make seven days home quarantine mandatory.
The new guidelines will be effective from January 11 till further notice.
Travellers coming from specified countries at risk will have to undergo home quarantine for 7 days and shall undertake an RT-PCR test on the 8th day of arrival in India, as per the guidelines. These travellers will have to submit samples for the post-arrival Covid-19 test at the point of arrival (self-paid). Such travellers will be required to wait for their test results at the arrival airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight. If they tested negative, they will follow home quarantine for 7 days and shall undertake another RT-PCR test on the 8th day of arrival in India.
The travellers shall also be required to upload results of repeat RT-PCR test for Covid-19 done on the 8th day on the Air Suvidha portal. If negative, they will further self-monitor their health for the next 7 days. However, if such travellers are tested positive, their samples should be further sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory network, as per the new guidelines.
Travellers coming from countries other than the list of risk countries will also undergo home quarantine for 7 days and shall undertake an RT-PCR test on the 8th day of arrival in India. They will have to upload results of repeat RT-PCR test on the Air Suvidha portal and If found negative, they will further self-monitor their health for the next 7 days.
The guidelines said that all travellers should submit complete and factual information in a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal before their scheduled travel, including travel details of the last 14 days. They need to upload a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report. The test should have been conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.
The passengers coming from or travelling to at-risk countries shall be informed by the airlines that they will undergo post-arrival testing. They will be quarantined if tested negative and will be subjected to stringent isolation protocols if tested positive, as per the new guidelines.
The non-recognition of the Covishield vaccine has impacted the Indians, especially students travelling to the UK. This issue was flagged during the meeting between Indian External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar and UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on Monday in Washington DC.
She reached Chandigarh, the joint capital of Punjab and Haryana, by air in the morning from where she headed straight to her daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's cottage located amid forests of pine and cedar on the suburbs of the Himachal Pradesh capital.
Channi took oath of office along with his two deputies -- one a Jat Sikh and another belonging to the Hindu community -- at a simple ceremony here in the Punjab capital that was delayed for 20 minutes owing to the late arrival of party leader Rahul Gandhi.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
