Centre issues fresh guidelines for international arrivals: seven-day home quarantine, post-arrival testing & more

All travellers should submit their information in a self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal before the scheduled travel, including details of any travel in the past 14 days. The travellers must also upload a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR test report not older than 72 hours. Those found submitting fabricated reports will face criminal prosecution, the statement said.

Further, the travellers are required to submit an undertaking that they would abide by the rules put forth by the appropriate government authority to undergo home/institutional quarantine/ self-health monitoring, as warranted.

"Continuing with the earlier approach, travellers from certain specified countries are identified for additional follow-up. These include need for additional measures," the statement said. These measures include "submission of sample for post-arrival COVID-19 test at the point of arrival (self-paid)". The passengers must wait at the airport for the result. If negative, the passengers will undergo home-quarantine and take another test on the eighth day, and upload the result of this test on the Air Suvidha portal. If the second result too is negative, then the passengers will self-monitor for seven days.

However, should the test on arrival come back positive, the samples will be sent for genomic sequencing to INSACOG laboratory network. The passengers will be sent to an isolation facility and treated as per standard protocol, including contact-tracing. The contacts of positive cases should be kept under home quarantine monitored strictly by the concerned government, the statement said.

In the statement, the airlines have been told to allow boarding for only those passengers who have submitted their shelf-declaration on the Air Suvidha portal and uploaded the negative test result. "At the time of boarding the flight, only asymptomatic travellers will be allowed to board after thermal screening," the statement read. Passengers have been advised to download the Aarogya Setu app.

Airlines were be required to make in-flight announcements about precautionary measures to be followed shall and ensure that COVID appropriate behaviour is followed at all times.  "If any passenger reports symptoms of COVID-19 during the flight, he/she shall be isolated as per protocol," the statement added.

As for travellers from non-risk countries, 2% of the total flight's passengers will be selected at random--preferably of different nationalities--and undergo post-arrival testing. "Laboratories shall prioritise testing of the samples from such travellers. All travellers (including the 2%) who test negative will undergo seven-day home quarantine and follow the aforementioned protocol," it said.

As per the statement, passengers under home-quarantine showing symptoms must immediately reach out to their local COVID helpline, or the national helpline (1075).

The same protocol applies to international travellers arriving at seaports/land ports. Children under 5 years of age are exempted from both pre- and post-arrival testing. "However, if found symptomatic for COVID-19 on arrival or during home quarantine period, they shall undergo testing and treated as per protocol," the statement said.

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