The Ministry of Civil Aviation today issued revised Covid guidelines for passengers arriving in international flights, ahead of RT-PCR negative test report being made compulsory for travellers from six countries, including China and Thailand.
From January 1, 2023, a pre-departure RT-PCR negative test report will be mandatory for passengers coming in all international flights from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan.
Airlines are directed to modify their check-in functionalities to incorporate the changes and issue boarding passes only to those international passengers travelling from the six countries who have submitted self-declaration forms on the Air Suvidha portal, the ministry said in a communication.
"Air Suvidha portal self-declaration has been made operational for passengers travelling in all international flights from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan, with a provision to allow these international travellers arriving in India to upload negative RT-PCR test reports as well as to submit self-declaration form," it said.
RT-PCR testing should have been done 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.
The current practice of random testing of 2 per cent of arriving passengers in each international flight will also continue.
These decisions have been taken amid rising cases of coronavirus infections in various parts of the world and reports regarding the circulation of variants of SARS-CoV-2 in the six countries.
The ministry on Friday sent the communication regarding the revised guidelines to all scheduled commercial airlines, airport operators, and chief secretaries/ administrators of states/Union Territories, among others.
On December 29, there were 83,003 international passenger arrivals, as per the latest official data.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
Parliament Showdown: Who Is Trivialising Ambedkar?
What Is A Tripledemic? Lookout For These Three Viruses That Cause Severe Respiratory Health Issues India Reports 157 Covid Cases, 2 Deaths In Last 24 Hours Daily Covid Cases On The Decline In India, But Centre Remains Alert World Leaders On Speed-Dial: How Elon Musk Is Causing Geopolitical Tremors Naval Personnel Among 13 Killed As Navy Boat Collides With Ferry Near Mumbai Video: Passengers Panic, Scream For Help As Ferry Sinks Off Mumbai Coast US Says Syria's HTS Should Learn From Taliban Isolation US Fed Cuts Key Interest Rate By 0.25%, Sending Stocks Tumbling Russia Detains Uzbek Man For Killing General On Orders Of Ukraine's SBU Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.