Govt may ask passengers flying out of India to get Covid test before flight

The Centre is planning to ask outbound flyers from India on international flights to have a COVID-19 test done prior to their flight. This comes in the aftermath of Hong Kong government banning Air India flights till August 31 after 11 people tested positive for coronavirus on arrival there from Delhi.

India banned all scheduled international passenger flights on March 23, and has since operated repatriation flights under the Vande Bharat Mission. In addition, the recently announced air bubbles with countries like the US, the UK, Canada, Germany, France, and the Maldives has also commenced.

Currently, India has mandated a seven-day institutional quarantine and a seven-day home quarantine for arriving passengers on international flights. There is an exemption for those producing a negative certificate of an RT-PCR test conducted within 96 hours of their flight’s departure. Similarly, on inbound flights, only the crew that has tested negative for COVID-19 is allowed to operate flights to India.