Omicron Scare: Health Ministry Revises Guidelines For International Arrivals In India, Effective From Dec 1

As per Health Ministry's guidelines, travellers from ‘countries at-risk’ will need to take COVID test post arrival and wait for results at airport.

New Delhi: Union Health Ministry on Sunday issued revised guidelines for international arrivals in India mandating submission of last 14 days’ travel details, uploading a negative RT-PCR test report on the Air Suvidha portal before the journey, among other measures.

The guideline issued in view of ‘Variant of Concern’ Omicron, will be effective from December 1.

As per Health Ministry’s guidelines, travellers from ‘countries at risk’ will need to take the COVID test post arrival and wait for results at the airport.

If tested negative they will follow home quarantine for seven days and take a retest on eighth day. If the test returns negative, further self-monitor for the next seven days will have been done.

On the other hand, travellers from countries excluding those ‘countries at risk’ will be allowed to leave airport and shall self-monitor health for 14 days. A subsection (five per cent of total flight passengers) shall undergo post-arrival testing at random at the airport on arrival, as per the guidelines.

This comes after the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) stated that the Union government will review the decision on the effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passenger service, as per evolving global scenario. Along with this, the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) on testing and surveillance of incoming international passengers, especially for those countries identified in the ‘at risk’ category will also be looked at, it had informed.

Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla chaired an urgent meeting on Sunday following the high-level review by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over Omicron.

“The strengthening and intensification of genomic surveillance for variants through the INSACOG network was agreed upon with a focus on sampling and whole genome sequencing of international passengers especially from those countries where Omicron variant has been detected,” an official statement informed.

Airport Health Officials (APHOs) and Port Health Officials (PHOs) are to be sensitised for strict supervision of testing protocol at airports/ ports, it stated.

“Decision on effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service, to be reviewed, as per evolving global scenario. Closer watch on emerging pandemic situation within the country will be maintained,” the MHA statement read.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had suspended operations of scheduled international commercial passenger services to and from India with effect from March 23, 2020, due to COVID-19.

The Union government had decided to resume scheduled regular international flights from December 15, nearly 20 months after these flights were suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in India.