India issues new guidelines for international arrivals

The Indian government has issued a new set of guidelines for all its citizens returning on repatriation flights from abroad.

According to a notice issued on May 24 by India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, all international passengers will have to undergo a mandatory quarantine of 14 days including seven days of institutional quarantine which they have to pay for.

They have to sign a sign an undertaking before boarding confirming that they will adhere to the quarantine measures.

In exceptional circumstances such as cases of human distress, pregnancy, death in family, serious illness and parents accompanied by children below 10 years, as per assessment by the receiving states, home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days, the ministry said. Those permitted will mandatorily need to download the Aarogya Setu Covid-19 tracking mobile app.

Other travellers have also been advised to download the app.

India began its ‘Mission Vande Bharat’ earlier this month to repatriate its nationals stranded abroad and has operated flights from across the world.

We brought back more than 30,000 stranded Indians on Vande Bharat flights since 6 May 2020.

We flew 917 tons of medical & essential cargo on Lifeline UDAN flights since 26 March 2020.

Today, we restart domestic flights.

India's civil aviation is always on the forefront.

— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) May 25, 2020

On Sunday, the Indian embassy in the UAE also confirmed that 81 flights will be operated from Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the next phase os repatriation, which will begin later this week.

Read: Third phase of repatriation flights from the UAE to India to begin this week