India allows quarantine-free entry for travellers from 99 countries after dip in COVID cases

India has reopened its borders for foreign tourists almost 20 months after the coronavirus pandemic. India is now allowing quarantine-free entry to tourists from 99 countries including the USA, the UK, Israel, Kuwait, Brazil, Canada, Greece, Columbia, Germany, Sri Lanka and Russia, which recognise the Indian vaccination certificates and those that exempt Indian citizens fully vaccinated with nationally-recognised or WHO-recognised vaccines, as per the Health Ministry’s list. If these travelers are fully vaccinated, they will be allowed to leave the airport and self-monitor their health for 14 days. 

In case these travelers are partially vaccinated, they have to submit the RT-PCR test at the airport following which they will be allowed to leave and self-monitor their health for seven days in home quarantine. There will be a retest on the eighth day and if found negative, they will have to self-monitor their health for seven more days. The removal of travel restrictions is an advantage for the country’s travel and tourism industry. The lowering of restrictions places the travel and tourism industry “in a very good position,” IRCTC’s director of tourism and marketing Rajni Hasija was quoted as saying by Bloomberg. India suspended all visas granted to foreign travellers last year in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country and by extension, the rest of the world. Not just that, the country also imposed several other restrictions on international travel, including limiting the number of flights and constituting special ‘air bubble’ arrangements with countries with favourable situations for travel. India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 112.34 crore on Monday with the administration of 30,20,119 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.