Covid-19 guidelines: Air India Express issues new rules for passengers coming from UAE

The Air India Express has issued a new set of guidelines for all passengers coming from the UAE to India. The airline has said that all travellers should preferably use masks and follow physical distancing on flights and at all points of entry. 

The guidelines further stated that all passengers from UAE should preferably be completely immunised as per the approved primary schedule of Covid vaccination.  

"All guests should preferably use masks and follow physical distancing on flights/travel and at all points of entry," Air India Express said in a tweet. 

The guidelines issued by Air India Express also stated that post-arrival random testing is not required for children under the age of 12. 

The children, if they have Covid-related symptoms upon arrival, have to undergo testing in accordance with protocol. 

India has stepped up its Covid response amid a sudden surge of Covid-19 cases in China in the last 20 days. The Centre has already reintroduced Covid testing measures at all the airports for international travellers. Samples of those arriving from foreign countries are being randomly tested for coronavirus variants. 

In addition to this, the Centre has made RT-PCR tests must for international passengers coming to India from China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Thailand. If any passenger from these countries is found to be symptomatic or tests positive for Covid, then he/she will be put under quarantine. 

The Centre has also asked international passengers to fill out Air Suvidha forms that show their current health status. Air Suvidha is a self-declaration form and was meant to understand contact tracing during the pandemic.  

So far, India has not introduced any flight restrictions from other countries. “There are no direct flights from China to India and we are taking all possible precautions that we have learned in the past two years to manage the spread of infection in the country. We are already randomly testing 2 per cent samples for Covid from international passengers on arrival. In the future, we can increase it further and can also make it mandatory for all arriving passengers to get tested,” Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in Rajya Sabha last week.

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