India issues new guidelines for passengers arriving from the UK, Brazil, Europe and Middle East countries

• Amid fear of new coronavirus strains, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued new guidelines for international arrivals in India.
• The new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will come into effect from midnight on February 22 till further orders.
• The guidelines came after at least five travellers, who returned to India recently, have been detected with the infectious Covid-19 variants found in South Africa and Brazil.

In the wake of a new strain of coronavirus infection, the Ministry of Civil Aviation issued new guidelines for international arrivals in India. The new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) will come into effect from midnight on February 22 till further orders.

These guidelines will supersede all other previous SOPs issued since August 2. The guidelines have been divided into three sections based on the origin of travel.

This came days after the Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said, "Unlike the UK, flights do not come directly to India from Brazil and South Africa. These passengers mostly take transit routes from Gulf nations in order to reach India. So we have to see if the air traffic needs to be restricted. We are in discussion with the (Civil) Aviation Ministry on this."


Here’s what all international passengers should adhere to:

• All travellers should submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel.
• All travellers should upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report. This test should have been conducted within 72 hrs prior to undertaking the journey.
• Arrival in India without negative report shall be allowed only for those travelling to India in the exigency of death in the family.
• If the passengers wish to seek such exemption from quarantine, they shall apply to the online portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) at least 72 hours before boarding. The decision taken by the government as communicated on the online portal will be final.
• All other passengers who have uploaded RT-PCR negative certificates on Air Suvidha portal shall be allowed to leave the airport and will be required to undertake self-monitoring of their health for 14 days.

Here’s what all international passengers coming or transiting through flights originating from the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa Europe and the Middle East should adhere to:

• In addition to above-mentioned guidelines, all international travellers coming or transiting through flights originating from the United Kingdom, Europe and the Middle East will have to additionally submit a Self-Declaration Form (SDF) for Covid on the online ‘Air Suvidha’ portal before the scheduled travel and will be required to declare their travel history of the past 14 days.
• While filling the SDF, apart from providing all other information required in the SDF, passengers need to select: Whether they plan to disembark at the arrival airport or take further flights to reach their final destination in India. Based on this selection, the receipt of SDF will display ‘T’ (Transit) in easily readable and bigger font than other text. The passengers will need to display this receipt to the state authority or government officials at the airport for segregation.
• Keeping in mind the testing requirements at the entry airport, Passengers arriving from the UK, Brazil and South Africa should ensure a minimum of 6-8 hours of transit time between their connecting flights.
• Transit travellers from the UK, Brazil and South Africa who test negative at the airport shall be allowed to take their connecting flights and would be advised quarantine at home for 7 days.
• Travellers from Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom, testing positive either at the airport or subsequently during home quarantine will be isolated in an institutional isolation facility in a separate unit coordinated by the respective state authorities.

Recently at least five travellers, who returned to India, have been detected with the infectious Covid-19 variants found in South Africa and Brazil. The government has suspended international scheduled flights till February 28. Overseas flights to and from India are currently operated as per air bubble agreements with various countries.

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