Delhi International Airport on Saturday launched the COVID-19 testing facility for international transit passengers at the Indira Gandhi International Airport Terminal 3 in collaboration with Genestrings lab.
The initiative has been taken to ensure testing of all arriving international transfer passengers scheduled to board a domestic connecting flight post-arrival in Delhi Airport.
The result of the COVID-19 test would come in six hours and those who test negative would proceed further to their destinations while those testing positive would be treated as per government protocol.
"The COVID-19 testing laboratory at Delhi Airport has been adequately equipped for testing and sample collection that will be conducted in compliance with the protocols established by the ICMR and NABL," Videh Kumar Jaipuriar, CEO-DIAL, said.
As per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) guidelines, passengers arriving from international destinations having RT-PCR negative certificates would be exempted from institutional quarantine granted by the state authorities and will be allowed for onward air journey.
his exemption will be on the basis of a negative RT-PCR test report, for which the test was conducted within 96 hours before undertaking the journey.
Meanwhile, Delhi Airport’s Air Suvidha portal received more than 45288 applications from international passengers seeking exemption from institutional quarantine.
The portal, launched on August 8, 2020, is a medium for passengers to address issues related to exemption from institutional quarantine and submitting self-declaration form which is mandatory for air travel.
For the uninitiated, India has agreed to create an "air travel bubble" to facilitate the movement of people between the two countries.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, International air travel has been hit hard and countries like India have been focusing on the creation of air bubbles for safer travel and before normal air travel resumes.
(With ANI inputs)