Fresh guidelines issued to travellers as new COVID-19 strains found in India

After new and highly infectious strains of COVID-19—South African and Brazilian strains—were detected in India, the health ministry issued a fresh set of guidelines for international travellers coming into the country. The ministry said that the new rules apply to all passengers, except those from the UK, Europe and Middle East.

The new guidelines state that only passengers who test negative in RT-PCR tests 72 hours ahead of departure will be allowed to board the aircraft. Passengers who are travelling because of a death in the family will be exempted from these rules.

The healthy ministry, in a tweet late on Wednesday, said that passengers must make sure that they follow these guidelines for travelling to India. The new SOPs will come into effect on February 22 at 23:59 hours, it added.

“Attention Passengers! To reduce the risk of importation of mutant strains of SARS-CoV-2, SOP for International Passengers arriving in India have been updated in supersession of all guidelines on the subject since 2 Aug 20. The new SOP will be in effect on 23:59 hrs on 22nd Feb,21,” the ministry tweeted, attaching the instructions in other tweets.