Pre-Booking of Covid-19 Test Mandatory For Passengers Arriving From ‘At-Risk’ Countries: Govt

The Government of India has made it mandatory for passengers coming in from ‘at-risk’ countries to pre-book their Rapid PCR, RT-PCR tests which they need to undergo on arrival.

This comes after the Delhi International Airport has urged the Centre Government of India to make it mandatory for all international passengers arriving from the ‘At Risk’ countries to pre-book their on arrival Covid-19 test online.

These new rules will come into effect from 20th Dec 2021 and in the first phase, it will be applicable only for international travelers arriving at below 6 airports;

• Delhi
• Mumbai
• Kolkata
• Chennai
• Bengaluru
• Hyderabad

It is worth mentioning here that passengers who have not pre-booked their tests will be allowed to board their flight but the concerned airlines will be responsible for book tests for such passengers.

A notification issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) Govt of India stated;

“Air Suvidha portal would be modified to allow the passengers to mandatorily pre-book the RT-PCR test if they are coming from the countries ‘at risk’ or have visited ‘at risk’ countries in the last 14 days…to stabilise the system and to ensure that the passengers would not have any problem in pre-booking, payment, etc, it may be implemented in six metro cities, namely, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad in the first phase.”

Countries ‘At-Risk’ – Updated As On 9th Dec

Last week India has updated its list of ‘At Risk’ countries and added Ghana and Tanzania to the list. Moreover, India has removed Singapore from the list. At present, the following 12, countries are on the ‘At Risk’ list of India,

1. European countries, including the UK
2. South Africa
3. Brazil
4. Botswana
5. China
6. Ghana
7. Mauritius
8. New Zealand
9. Tanzania
10. Zimbabwe
11. Hong Kong and
12. Israel

It may be noted that all international passengers are mandated to follow the below measures arriving/transiting from Countries at-risk.

• Submit self-declaration form on Air Suvidha portal.
• Upload negative RT-PCR report (conducted within 72 hrs. before the journey)
• Post-arrival COVID-19 test at arriving Airport (self-paid)
• Home quarantine for 7 days,
• Re-test on the 8th day and if negative, self-health monitoring for next 7 days

The Aviation Ministry has also requested the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to issue an advisory to all airlines operating in India to check the mandatory pre-booking of the Covid-19 test.

“DGCA is requested to issue advisory to all airlines to check mandatory pre-booking of their passengers before boarding the flight. In case any passenger is having any difficulty in pre-booking, they may not be denied boarding, but it would be the responsibility of the airlines to identify and accompany such passengers to the registration counter at the airport for testing,” the notification added.