International flyers to undergo 7-day institutional quarantine in Delhi

New Delhi: The Delhi airport authority has issued latest guidelines for international passengers arriving here. The guidelines were issued on Tuesday.

All the passengers with no onward connection have been asked to undergo seven days of institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by one-week of home quarantine.

The airport authority has also asked the passengers to sign an undertaking that they accept this obligation, which will be retained by the overseas mission/embassy before the booking is confirmed.

For those who are planning to stay in Delhi-NCR, according to the guideline, they will have to undergo mandatory health screening - first by airport health officials and then at the Delhi government post.

At the first level, the passengers will undergo thermal screening by “discreetly mounted, highly accurate mass screening cameras”.

The passengers will be allowed to go to their approved location only after the two levels of screening.

The guideline further said that exemptions will be given to only four category of people: Pregnant women, for those who have suffered death in the family, those suffering from serious illness and parents of children below 10 years of age. However, proper documentation is needed in all these cases. It also gave an email address when undertaking should be provided for people belonging to these exempted categories.

Since Indian air space was closed in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic, only repatriation or rescue flights for Indians stranded overseas have operated from India (under the Vande Bharat mission). Some foreign airlines operated similar flights to India.

“Passengers arriving on an international Vande Bharat Mission flight may only take a connecting domestic flight if it also comes under the Vande Bharat Mission. However, passengers who are planning to board onward domestic flights will have to obtain an authorised exemption certificate, if they are coming through non-Vande Bharat international flights,” the guideline issued by the authority further said.

The government has extended the ban on international flights from July 15 to 31. After nearly two months of suspension the domestic flights resumed operations on May 25.

India has reported a huge spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the last few weeks. On Tuesday, 37,148 cases and 587 deaths were reported which took the countrywide infection tally to 11,55,191.

Delhi, meanwhile, recorded 1,349 fresh cases of coronavirus disease on Tuesday, which took its tally to over 1.25 lakh. The death toll from the disease mounted to 3,690. On Monday, the fresh cases count had dipped to 954.