Guwahati: With the decrease number of Omicron variant of Covid-19, the government on Thursday has issued new guidelines for all international arrivals.
In the fresh Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), the government has made seven-day home quarantine mandatory for all arriving from overseas and an RT-PCR test on the eighth day. The guidelines will come into force from February 14 and will remain effective till further government orders.
On arrival at the airport, a subset of the passengers (2% of the total) will be subjected to random post-arrival testing. They will be permitted to leave the airport after submitting their samples, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said while announcing the move on Twitter.
Instead of the previously necessary seven-day home quarantine, all travellers will be required to self-monitor their health for 14 days after their arrival, he said.
According to the ministry, there will be an option to upload certificates of completion of the whole primary Covid vaccination schedule provided by nations on a reciprocal basis, in addition to a negative RT-PCR report (taken 72 hours before to the voyage). A list of 82 such countries was provided by the ministry. The United States of America, New Zealand, Switzerland, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bangladesh, Iran, Nepal, Mexico, and the Netherlands are among these countries.
“The requirement for doing an RT-PCR test on the eighth day and uploading the results to the Air Suvidha portal has been removed,” Mandaviya tweeted.
Passengers who are found to be sick during post-arrival screening will be segregated promptly and transported to a medical facility in accordance with health procedure. If they are found to be positive, their contacts will be identified and addressed according to policy.
If such travellers test positive, their samples should be transferred to the INSACOG laboratory network for genetic testing, and they will be treated/isolated in accordance with standard protocol, according to the guidelines.
International passengers arriving at seaports/land ports will be subjected to the identical procedures as those described above, with the exception that online registration is not yet possible for such passengers. Pre-arrival and post-arrival testing are not required for children under the age of five. However, if they are found to be symptomatic for COVID-19 upon arrival or during the self-monitoring period, they will be tested and treated as per laid down protocols, the guidelines further stated.