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 highly specialised medical services to be rolled out across the state by end November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor for whom expert private sector medical care is out of reach, he said.
The Minister while addressing the inaugural session of 'Connect Karo 2021 - Towards Equitable, Sustainable Indian Cities' event, said that there can be no doubt that India's cities "enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology" will be the key to achieving the nation's development objectives.
Meanwhile, India logged 27,254 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 219 Covid deaths in the same time span. The country presently has nearly 3.75 lakh active cases.
At a virtual Covid-19 review meeting, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special efforts were made to reach out to the government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.
DGP Dinkar Gupta said with the case load decreasing, people had started being lax about wearing masks, which the Health Department should strictly enforce with the help of the police.
Additional Chief Secretary Devendra Singh and Deputy Commissioner of Karnal Nishant Yadav are participating in the meeting. From the farmers side, BKU president Gurunam Singh Chaduni and the state leadership will present their demands.
