India introduces new Covid-19 rules for travellers from six countries

However, random testing of 2 per cent of all travellers landing in India will continue, the health ministry has said

India has lifted the mandatory Covid-19 testing for travellers arriving from/via China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea, Thailand, and Japan. The news comes as infections related to the virus have registered a sharp decline globally, the mint reported.

 

Earlier mandatory, the travellers from these countries are no longer required to upload the "Air Suvidha" form, the report added.

 

Here are all the developments so far:

 

• Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan, in a letter to his counterpart in the ministry of civil aviation, Rajiv Bansal, said his ministry was updating its 'Guidelines for International Arrivals', taking into consideration the decline in Covid-19 cases.

 

• However, the health ministry has said that random testing of 2 per cent of all travellers landing in India will continue.

 

• The new rule came into effect on Monday for China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand, the report said.

 

• The decision comes from a significant decline in coronavirus cases in these countries over the past few weeks.

 

• The said letter read, "In view of the above, this ministry is updating its 'Guidelines for International Arrivals', and dropping the existing requirements of pre-departure Covid-19 testing and uploading of the Self-Health Declaration on the ministry of civil aviation's 'Air Suvidha' portal applicable for international travellers coming from/via China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan.", as quoted by the report.

 

• Moreover, the letter added, "In order to monitor infections due to mutated variants of SARS-CoV-2 among international travellers to India, the present exercise of random testing of two per cent travellers irrespective of their country of origin upon arrival in India shall continue."

 

• Furthermore, according to the World Health Organization's latest update on coronavirus, a decline of 89% in the number of newly confirmed cases in the past 28 days has been noted globally compared to 28 days prior to that, the Union Health Secretary noted.

 

• In the news coming in from China, Wu Zunyou, chief epidemiologist at the China Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the possibility of a large new wave of Covid-19 is relatively low in the coming months in China, the report added.

 

• India registered 124 new Covid-19 cases, while the active infection numbers have increased to 1,843, per the Union Health Ministry data updated on Sunday. The death toll now stands at 5,30,750, the data showed.

 

• According to the data available on the health ministry's website, around 220.62 crore doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in India under the nationwide vaccination campaign, as per the report.