Covid-19 rules for international passengers: 7-day home stay, test on Day 8

The revised guidelines come at a time when the daily Covid-19 case count is rising — 1,17,100 new cases were reported on Friday, taking the active caseload to 3,71,363 — driven by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

The revised guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare will come into effect from January 11. “The existing guidelines have been revised in view of reporting of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 (B.1.1.529; named Omicron) which has been classified as Variant of Concern by the World Health Organisation,” the ministry said.

Eight more countries — Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia and Zambia — have been added to the list of “at risk” countries. Earlier, countries in Europe, including the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong and Israel were specified as “at risk”. All
travellers from these countries have to undergo mandatory RT-PCR tests on arrival.

For other countries, about 2 per cent of the total passengers on a flight undergo random tests on arrival at the airport, while all are required to “self-monitor” their health for 14 days post-arrival. Now, under the new guidelines, RT-PCR test is mandatory for all of them on their eighth day of arrival.

“Travellers shall also be required to upload results of repeat RT-PCR test done on eighth day on Air Suvidha portal (to be monitored by the respective States/UTs),” it said.