COVID-19: India mandates 7-day quarantine for all international travellers

India has mandated seven-day quarantine for all international travellers from today. The Health Ministry mandate, issued on January 7, will remain effective further orders. These rules cover protocols to be followed by passengers, airlines and all entry points (airports, seaports and land border).
 
After the seven-day quarantine is over, passengers have to take an RT-PCR test on the eighth day and upload its result on the Air Suvidha portal. Passengers are advised to self-monitor their health condition in case their report is negative. If tested positive, their samples will be sent for genomic sequencing.
 
Travellers from certain countries are at-risk and have been identified for additional follow-up. Airlines also have to inform these travellers about post-arrival testing, quarantine in case of a negative report, stringent isolation protocols if tested positive, etc.
 
According to the Health Ministry, total 19 countries have been identified as at-risk countries as on January 7, 2022. These are the UK, South Africa, China, Brazil, Botswana, New Zealand, Ghana, Mauritius, Israel, Hong Kong, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Congo, Kenya, Kazakhstan, Nigeria, Tanzania and Tunisia.
 
Meanwhile, children under five years of age have been kept exempt from pre- and post-arrival testing. If they are found to be symptomatic for coronavirus on arrival or during home quarantine, they will be tested and treated as per the ministry’s protocol. All community contacts of those travellers who tested positive during home quarantine period would be subjected to quarantine for 14 days and tested as per ICMR protocol.

Also read: ICMR issues new COVID guidelines: Check out who needs to get tested, who doesn't

Also read: Omicron's explosive spread potential makes global threat level very high: INSACOG