Nearly 20 months after restrictions were imposed owing to COVID-19, India reinstated quarantine-free entrance for foreign visitors from 99 countries that have agreed to mutual recognition of COVID-19 immunisation certificates.
According to the revised Guidelines for International Arrivals released by the Union health ministry on November 11, travellers from these 99 countries, which include the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and Russia, must submit a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal (newdelhiairport.in) before their scheduled travel, in addition to uploading a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report.
The RT-PCR test should be done within 72 hours before embarking on your journey.
Each passenger must also sign a declaration attesting to the report’s validity, or face criminal charges if the report is proved to be false.
There are nations that have signed agreements with India to recognise immunisation certificates for vaccines that are either domestically recognised or recognised by the World Health Organization.
Similarly, some nations do not have such an agreement with India, but they exempt Indian citizens who have been completely vaccinated against COVID-19 using nationally or WHO-recognized vaccines, according to the standards.
Travelers from all such countries that grant quarantine-free entrance to Indians (“Category A”) are allowed some relaxations on arrival based on reciprocity, according to the standards.
The United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and Singapore are among the countries currently considered “at risk” by India, which means that visitors from those countries will be subjected to additional measures on arrival, including testing.
“As India opened its doors to fully-vaccinated international tourists from all over the world beginning Monday,” the Union Ministry of Tourism said in a tweet. “India tourism Mumbai accorded a warm welcome to the first set of international tourists who landed at Mumbai International Airport by Air France flight AF218.”
According to the recommendations, fully-vaccinated travellers from countries with which India has reciprocal agreements for mutual acceptance of WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines would be allowed to leave the airport and will not be subjected to home quarantine.
They must keep track of their health for 14 days after arriving.
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