No pre-departure Covid tests for travellers from six countries from Feb 13

A letter by the Secretary of the Health Ministry to the Secretary of Civil Aviation in this regard claimed that the said Singapore, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Japan have witnessed a “sustained and significant decline in the trajectory of Covid-19 cases” over the past weeks.

Hyderabad: In a significant development, the Union Ministry of Health has done away with the pre-departure negative COVID-19 test report of air travellers coming from or via Singapore, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea and Japan and uploading self-health declaration of such travellers on the 'Air Suvidha'.

As per the latest guidelines of the Union Ministry of Health, the directive will be effective from February 13 at 11 am. A letter from the Secretary of the Health Ministry has been sent to Secretary in the Civil Aviation in this regard. As per the Secretary of the Health Ministry, the said countries have witnessed a “sustained and significant decline in the trajectory of Covid-19 cases” over the past weeks.

Besides, the WHO also said that there was an 89 per cent decline in overall cases globally in the last 28 days, as compared to 28 days before that, the Secretary of the Health Ministry said. The Indian High Commission in Singapore also confirmed the development on its official Twitter handle. “Passengers coming to India from or via Singapore WILL NOT REQUIRE a negative report from a pre-departure Covid test nor need to upload self-health declaration on “Air Suvidha” portal from 11 am on Monday (February 13),” the High Commission wrote.

As per the Indian High Commission in Singapore, the Ministry of Health, India revised travel guidelines after the six places (including Singapore) saw a “sustained and significant decline in the trajectory of Covid-19 cases” in the last four weeks. It said that to monitor infections due to mutated variants of SARS-CoV-2 among international travellers to India, the present exercise of random testing of 2% of travellers to India (irrespective of country of origin) upon arrival in India shall continue.

As per the Union Ministry of Health, a sub-section (2% of the total passengers in the flight) shall undergo random post-arrival testing at the airport on arrival. Such travellers in each flight shall be identified by the airlines concerned (preferably from different countries), the ministry said. The travellers are required to submit the samples and shall be allowed to leave the airport thereafter. If such travellers' samples tested positive, their samples should be further sent for genomic testing at the INSACOG laboratory network, the ministry said.