Tourists have started to travel to India today as it opened its borders to foreign visitors on commercial flights for the first time since March 2020.
After 18 months of border closures and COVID-19 punitive surges, India is once again welcoming tourists. While tourists have been able to travel to India since October 15 on charter flights, it is the first time since March 2020 that commercial flights are landing in India as foreign visitors from 99 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and most European countries, have received the green light for a quarantine-free journey. …
India’s Home Office has said it will issue 500,000 tourist or e-visas by March 2022 as cases across the country begin to decline. Arrivals must show proof of full vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours of boarding a flight to India.
The US Embassy in India stated that “travelers arriving from or transiting through countries at risk that do not have a vaccination agreement with India will either have to self-check within 14 days of arrival (if fully vaccinated) or get tested for COVID-19 after arrival and stay in home quarantine for seven days (if they are partially or not vaccinated). ”
India became the first country to be hit by a major spike in COVID-19 caused by the Delta species earlier this year, with more than 400,000 cases per day at its peak in the spring. The country still has the second highest number of COVID-19 cases after the United States, but fortunately, the number of cases after the peak has been steadily declining and the vaccination rate is rising.
India on Monday marked a major milestone in its vaccination campaign – the largest in the world, with the Ministry of Health announcing that it has now administered Rs 112.34 (about 1,123 million) doses.
About 370 million people in India are currently fully vaccinated, according to Oxford’s website Our World In Data, accounting for 27% of the 1.38 billion population.
However, the end of the pandemic has not yet arrived. Domestic measures to contain the spread of COVID-19 continue to be in place across the country, and visitors are asked to abide by them. Currently, people are required to wear masks in public places and on public transport in some areas. There are social distancing and capacity restrictions throughout the country, and fines are issued for failing to comply with these requirements in a number of states.
“Foreign tourists must comply with all necessary protocols and regulations regarding COVID-19, which are approved from time to time by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” officials said.