After being halted for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, international travel has finally resumed in India and several other countries across the globe, facilitating people who were stranded in other countries during the pandemic, and giving a much-needed boost to tourism.
Relaxing the COVID-19 international travel guidelines even further, the central government has announced that children under five years of age are exempted from both pre and post-arrival testing upon arrival in India.
In an official release by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it is stated that if they are found to be symptomatic for COVID-19 on arrival or during the home quarantine period, they shall undergo testing and treatment as per protocols.
“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 the home quarantine period, they shall undergo testing and treated as per laid down protocol,” the new Health Ministry guidelines said.
The Union Health Ministry further said that the pandemic situation in India is further improving and the increase in the vaccination drive of other countries is changing the nature of the pandemic across the globe, which can lead to changes in the international travel guidelines.
“The global trajectory of COVID-19 pandemic continues to decline with certain regional variations. The need to monitor the continuously changing nature of virus and evolution of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOCs) must still remain in focus,” the guideline said.
The Ministry also stated that the standard operating procedure (SOP) shall be valid from November 12 (00.00 hours IST) till further orders. The revised guidelines also state that 15 days must have elapsed since the completion of the COVID-19 vaccination schedule.
The guidelines further state that the de-board should be done maintaining a proper physical distance between all the passengers thermal screening of all passengers should be carried out by the health officials present at the airport.
The health ministry-issued guidelines also state that all the community contacts of travellers who have tested positive would be subjected to quarantine for 14 days and tested as per the Indian Council of Medical Research’s protocol.
(With ANI inputs)
