India eases quarantine rules for foreign travellers
India yesterday lifted quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated foreign travellers as the government sought to revive tourism after closing its borders in March last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
All foreign arrivals will have to show a negative PCR test result taken up to 72 hours earlier, under new rules issued by the health ministry. Those with proof of vaccination will face no further restrictions.
Tourists who are not fully vaccinated will be tested on arrival and have to self-isolate for seven days, after which they will be tested again.
After initially halting all foreign arrivals, India began allowing diplomats, businessmen and journalists to enter but required them to undergo a 14-day quarantine. The government began issuing visas to tourists arriving on charter flights earlier this month. Tourists on regular flights will be allowed entry starting from mid-November – the start of the peak tourist season.
The ministry in a statement said, “In view of increasing vaccination coverage across the globe and the changing nature of the pandemic, the existing guidelines for international arrivals in India have been reviewed”.
The new guidelines will be followed for the passengers coming to India from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Nepal, Belarus, Lebanon, Armenia, Ukraine, Belgium, Hungary, and Serbia. Additional measures will be followed for passengers arriving in India from countries at-risk, which include South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.
India yesterday reported 14,306 fresh cases of Covid-19 and 443 related deaths in the last 24 hours. Of the total cases and fatalities reported in the past 24 hours, Kerala alone accounted for 8,538 infections and 71 deaths.
The health ministry also said that the country’s active caseload now stands at 167,695, the lowest in 239 days, and accounts for less than 1% of total infections.
The recovery rate in the country has soared to 98.18% and is the highest since the beginning of the pandemic. The weekly positivity rate stood at 1.24% and the daily positivity rate at 1.43%, according to the health ministry.
In an apparent sign of the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic receding, the daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 31 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 120 consecutive days now.
India has administered more than 1.0227bn Covid-19 vaccine doses so far, as per the data available with the health ministry. On October 22, the country celebrated the milestone of administering 1bn vaccine doses under the inoculation drive.
India’s Covid-19 tally crossed the 2mn mark on August 7, 2020, 3mn on August 23, 4mn on September 5 and 5mn on September 16. It went past 6mn on September 28, 7mn on October 11, crossed 8mn on October 29, 9mn on November 20 and surpassed the 10mn mark on December 19.