India issues travel guidelines for international arrivals in wake of COVID variant Omicron

India issues travel guidelines for international arrivals in wake of COVID variant Omicron

India's health ministry revised its guidelines for international arrivals on Sunday following the news of COVID variant Omicron — designated as a Variant of Concern (VOC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). The new guidelines will come into effect on December 1. The Ministry of Health, in a statement, said, “Existing guidelines have been revised for reporting a new variant of SARSCoV2 (B.1.1.529; called Omicron) which has now been classified as a VOC by the WHO. - International arrivals will now have to upload their 14-day travel history and present valid a negative RT PCR test report on Air Suvidha portal before travelling to India. - The RT-PCR test report should not be more than 72 hours old. - Passengers travelling from countries that are categorised as 'at-risk' will have to undergo testing on arrival. A woman undergoes a PCR test at Dubai Airport. File - If the passengers test positive, their samples will be sent for genomic sequencing, and they will be sent to institutional quarantine. - If they test negative, they will be asked to remain in home quarantine for seven days following which they will take a test on the 8th day and will continue to monitor