The new guidelines for international arrival has been issued by the Union health ministry amid the spread of mutant variants of Covid-19 and they will come into effect from Monday. The rules will be effective from 11:59 pm on Monday and will be in force till further orders. The health ministry said in its updated guidelines, “There is increasing evidence that the mutant variants of SARS-CoV-2 are in circulation in many countries and these mutant variants are driving the pandemic in their country of origin. So far, the three SARS-CoV-2 variants in circulation viz-a-viz (i) UK variant (ii) South Africa variant and (iii) Brazil variant, have been detected in 86, 44 and 15 countries, respectively.”

Also See: The New mutants of the Covid19 virus

Here are the guidelines for international arrivals which will be effective February 22 onwards:

  1. Self declaration form-All international travellers will have to submit a self-declaration form (SDF) for Covid19 on the online Air Suvidha portal before their scheduled travel.
  2. Negative Report-Travellers will also have to upload a negativeCovid-19RT-PCR report on the online portal of New Delhi airport, www.newdelhiairport.in, with a declaration form stating the authenticity of the report.
  3. Time of test-The test must be conducted 72 hours prior to the journey.
  4. Boarding after thermal screening-Only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board after the thermal screening.
  5. These rules shall also apply to international travellers arriving through seaports/land ports but online registration policy cannot be availed by them.
  6. International travellers arriving from/transiting through the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa (during the past 14 days) will have to be segregated by the airline in-flight.
  7. Self-paid confirmatory molecular tests on arrival will be mandatory for all travellers arriving from/transiting through flights originating in the United Kingdom, Europe or the Middle East.
  8. Such travellers will give their samples to the designated area before exiting the airport. If the test report is negative, they will be advised to self-monitor their health for 14 days. If the test report is positive, they will undergo treatment as per standard health protocol.