New Delhi: International passengers arriving at the IGI Airport in Delhi will no longer have to follow the mandatory weeklong quarantine rule. The decision announced by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare comes into force from Monday. The decision has been taken after Covid-19 cases plummeted across the world.
The Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) has instructed officials to ensure that the new Covid guidelines announced by the ministry are strictly followed at the airport for international arrivals.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare guidelines, passengers arriving at the airport will have to show self-declaration form. If found symptomatic during screening, passengers will be immediately isolated and taken to medical facility.
The protocol post arrival mandates that two per cent of the total passengers in a flight will undergo random testing at the airport. Such travellers in each flight will be identified by the airlines concerned, preferably from different countries.
They will submit the samples and will be allowed to leave the airport. If such travellers test positive, their samples would be sent for genomic sequencing.
All travellers will self-monitor their health for next 14 days of arrival. Earlier, such travellers were required to undergo weeklong home quarantine.
The guidelines state if travellers under self-health monitoring develop signs and symptoms suggestive of COVID-19, they will immediately self-isolate and report to their nearest health facility or call national helpline number (1075)/ state helpline number.
This Standard Operating Procedure will be valid from midnight of February 14 till further orders.
Based on the risk assessment, this document shall be reviewed from time to time.
The guidelines further stipulate all travellers should submit complete and factual information in self-declaration form on the online air portal Suvidha before the scheduled travel, including last 14 days' travel details.
They will also upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report not earlier than 72 hrs prior to undertaking the travel or certificate of completing full primary vaccination schedule.
According to Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 44,877 fresh Covid-19 cases were reported in the country on Sunday, which took the active caseload to 5,37,045.
The daily positivity rate has been recorded at 3.17 per cent, while the weekly positivity rate is 4.46 per cent.
(With inputs from PTI)