Fresh Guidelines for International Travelers, Quarantine Norms Tweaked

The Centre on Sunday came up with a fresh set of guidelines for inbound international passengers, wherein the quarantine norms have been tweaked.

New international norms will come into effect from August 8 in India. International travellers may seek exemption from institutional quarantine by giving a negative RT-PCR test report for COVID-19 on arrival.

"This test should have been conducted within 96 hours prior to undertaking the journey. The test report should be uploaded on the portal for consideration," it said.

‘Only for compelling reasons of human distress like pregnancy, death in family, serious illness and parent(s) with children of the age of 10 years or below, home quarantine can be permitted for 14 days.’
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Further, each passenger shall also submit a declaration with respect to authenticity of the report and will be liable for criminal prosecution, if found otherwise. The test report could also be produced upon arrival at the point of entry in India.

Further, all travellers will have to submit a self-declaration form on the online portal -- www.newdelhiairport.in -- at least 72 hours before the scheduled travel.

They should also give an undertaking on the portal that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days, 7 days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, and followed by 7 days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health.

"Only for compelling reasons/cases of human distress such as pregnancy, death in family, serious illness and parent(s) with children of the age of 10 years or below, home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days," said the guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The ministry said that thermal screening would be carried out in respect of all the passengers at the airport, seaport and landport and the passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility as per health protocol.

Coronavirus
Coronaviruses infect animals, humans, and birds. Human coronaviruses, such as SARS, MERS, and 2019-nCoV cause respiratory distress and even death. The S protein is the infectious agent of the virus.

Post thermal screening, the passengers who have been exempted from institutional quarantine will show the same to the respective state counters on their cell phones or other modes before being allowed home quarantine for 14 days.

The remaining passengers shall be taken to suitable institutional quarantine facilities, to be arranged by the respective state or union territory governments.

States can develop their own protocol with regard to quarantine and isolation as per their assessment post arrival of passengers in the state concerned, the ministry said.

Source-IANS