Tourists will not be ‘harassed’ for COVID-19 report on Himachal Pradesh borders: Jai Ram Thakur

Tourists visiting Himachal Pradesh will not be “harassed” for a coronavirus negative test report on the state’s borders, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Tuesday.

Days after the state government announced making it mandatory for people coming from seven worst-affected states to show a COVID-19 negative test report on entering the state, Thakur said they have put in place a mechanism for monitoring tourists on their arrival at the place of their stay.

“We have taken care of our tourism industry to ensure it does not suffer this session as the coronavirus pandemic affected it last year. So, in the SOP released for the industry, we have put in place a mechanism to monitor it accordingly. Tourists and other visitors will not be harassed by stopping for corona reports on the state’s borders because it causes a lot of inconvenience and difficulty to them,” he told reporters here.

As majority of the visitors will stay in hotels, the administration has put in place a mechanism to check the visitors from the seven states on their arrival at the place of their stay, he added.

The Himachal Pradesh government on Sunday made it mandatory for people coming from seven states which have witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases to show a COVID-19 negative test report on entering the state.

Thakur had said then that people coming from Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh need to carry a negative RT-PCR report not earlier than 72 hours while visiting Himachal Pradesh from April 16.

The chief minister arrived here this morning from Shimla on a day’s visit. He will preside over a high-level meeting to review the coronavirus situation in Kangra district and its surrounding areas.