In response to decreasing Covid-19 cases across thw world, the Ministry of Health directed to ease a few protocols for travellers that will be effective from Monday.
As the world has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of covid-cases, the centre has uplifted a few of Covid-19 guidelines for travellers travelling from or through China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and Japan.
In a letter to civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal, union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote that the current mandate of pre-departure Covid-19 testing – taken not more than 72 hours before the journey – and self-health declaration on ‘Air Suvidha’ for international arrivals from six countries was being changed in lieu of the downward spiral of Covid-19 cases.
The updated guidelines will come into effect from 11 am on February 13. According to the World Health Organization's data, the last 28 days saw a dip of 89% in new infections compared to the numbers registered in the previous 28 days.
However, travellers must note that the union health ministry will keep monitoring the emerging variants. With this, the ministry will continue random Covid-19 testing of 2 per cent of all flyers coming to India. Earlier, the random testing of the travellers was stopped in November but it came into effect again on December 24 after the careful consideration of the government over the rising covid-19 cases in China and neighbouring countries.
India continues to report a decline in the number of Covid19 cases with less than 100 being registered daily. As per data on Sunday, 124 new Covid-19 cases were recorded while the active infection numbers rose to 1,843. Number of deaths due to Covid19 stood at 5,30,750. According to the health ministry's website, around 220.62 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in India till date.