Fully vaccinated travellers from 99 countries, including the US, UK, UAE, Qatar, France and Germany,  have been exempted from mandatory quarantine on arrival in India, according to an updated notification by the Indian government. These 99 countries have been listed under ‘Category A’ in the government notification. However, they will be required to follow certain norms that remain the same for all travellers.

Category A countries comprise those with which India “has an agreement for mutual recognition of vaccination certificate for individuals fully vaccinated with a Nationally recognized or WHO recognized COVID-19 vaccine and those exempting Indian citizens fully vaccinated with Nationally recognized or WHO recognised vaccines”.

Some of the other 99 nations included in ‘Category A’ are Israel, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Bangladesh, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey and Nepal.

Travellers from these countries will have to submit a self-declaration of their fully vaccinated status on the Air Suvidha portal, and upload a negative RT-PCR test report, not older than 72 hours before the journey. The passengers also need to submit a declaration related to the authenticity of the RT-PCR report.

Though the passengers from the 99 countries are exempted from quarantine, but they will have to self-monitor their health for 14 days post arrival in India.

If any passenger is found to be symptomatic during screening he or she shall be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility as per health protocol. If tested positive, their contacts will be identified and managed as per laid down protocol.

Those who are partially vaccinated or not vaccinated will have to submit a sample for post-arrival Covid-19 test at the point of arrival after which they will be allowed to leave the airport. They will have to home quarantine for seven days, and re-test on the 8th day of arrival in India, and if negative, further self-monitor their health for the next 7 days, the notification said.

(SAM)