Centre issues new SOPs for int’l arrivals amid new Covid strains

NEW DELHI: The health ministry on Wednesday issued new guidelines for international arrival amid the spread of mutant variants of Covid-19, saying the latest rules will come into effect from 23:59 hours on February 22 and will be in force till further orders.

On Tuesday, the ministry had informed that the South African variant was detected in four travelers returning from Africa and the Brazilian strain was found in a returnee from Brazil.

“In the context of Covid-19, Government of India is following point of entry procedures for identifying international travellers, particularly at-risk travellers to India through multipronged strategy of thermal screening and testing,” the health ministry said in its updated guidelines. “There is increasing evidence that the mutant variant 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,” it added. According to the guidelines, all international travellers, except those coming on flights originating from the United Kingdom, Europe and Middle East, will require to submit a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal along with a negative Covid-19 RT-PCR report prior to travel.

“This test should have been conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey. Each passenger shall also submit a declaration with respect to authenticity of the report and will be liable for criminal prosecution, if found otherwise,” the guidelines read. Besides this, passengers will also require to submit an undertaking on the portal or otherwise to the aviation ministry through concerned airlines before journey that they would abide by decision of government authority to undergo home quarantine/ selfmonitoring for 14 days, or as warranted.