The Ministry of Civil Aviation on Friday issued revised Covid guidelines for passengers arriving in international flights, ahead of RT-PCR negative test report being made compulsory for travellers from six countries, including China and Thailand.
6 countries
RT-PCR negative test reports will be required pre-departure, starting on January 1, 2023 for travellers arriving on all international flights from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Thailand, and Japan.
Airlines are directed to modify their check-in functionalities to incorporate the changes and issue boarding passes only to those international passengers travelling from the six countries who have submitted self-declaration forms on the Air Suvidha portal, the ministry said in a communication.
“Air Suvidha portal self-declaration has been made operational for passengers travelling in all international flights from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan, with a provision to allow these international travellers arriving in India to upload negative RT-PCR test reports as well as to submit self-declaration form,” it said.
RT-PCR testing should have been done 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.
The current practice of random testing of 2 per cent of arriving passengers in each international flight will also continue.
These decisions have been taken amid rising cases of coronavirus infections in various parts of the world and reports regarding the circulation of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the six countries.
The ministry notified all scheduled commercial airlines, airport operators, chief secretaries/ administrators of states and Union Territories, among others, of the updated guidelines on Friday.
According to the most recent official statistics, 83,003 international passengers arrived on December 29.
With inputs from Agencies.