India Restarts Quarantine- Free Entry To Fully Vaccinated Travellers From These 99 Countries

India shares an agreement with some of the 99 nations on “mutual recognition of vaccination certificates” of nationally recognized or the WHO recognized vaccines. India now allows these 99 countries' travellers quarantine-free entry who are fully vaccinated.

According to a recently updated notification by the Union government, fully vaccinated travelers from 99 countries are now allowed to travel in India without mandatory quarantine. Although travellers from these countries have been exempted from mandatory quarantine, they will be required to follow certain norms that remain the same for all travellers.

These  99 countries travelers include the US, the UK, France, Germany, Australia, the Netherlands, and Russia, which have been listed under “Category A”, have to submit a self-declaration form on the Air Suvidha portal (newdelhiairport.in) before the scheduled travel, apart from uploading a negative COVID-19 RT-PCR report, according to the revised Guidelines for International Arrivals released by the Union health ministry on 11th November. Also, the RT-PCR test should be conducted within 72 hours prior to undertaking the journey.

Countries that feature in the ‘Category A’ list

The United States, Great Britain, Israel, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Belgium, Bangladesh, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Russia, the Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, and Nepal are some of the countries that feature in the list.

The reason ‘Category A’ countries given Covid-19 relaxations

According to the Centre’s notification, India shares an agreement with some of the 99 nations on “mutual recognition of vaccination certificates” of nationally recognized or the World Health Organisation (WHO) recognized vaccines. On the other hand, some countries in the ‘Category A’ list though do not have mutual recognition of the Covid-19 vaccine agreement with India, they permit quarantine-free entry in their land to fully vaccinated Indian nationals.

The notification explained that the decision to offer some relaxations to Covid-19 protocols for international travellers from the 99 countries has been made “based on reciprocity”, the notification explained.

Based on reciprocity, the travellers from all such countries that provide quarantine-free entry to Indians (“Category A” countries) are allowed certain relaxations on arrival, the guidelines read.

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Some of the countries currently considered to be “at-risk” by India, which means the travelers from where would need to follow additional measures on arrival including testing, are the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, and Singapore.

“As India opened its doors to fully-vaccinated international tourists from all over the world beginning Monday, India tourism Mumbai accorded a warm welcome to the first set of international tourists who landed at Mumbai International Airport by Air France flight AF218,” the Union Ministry of Tourism said in a tweet.

According to the guidelines, if fully-vaccinated travellers are coming from a country with which India has reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines, they shall be allowed to leave the airport and need not undergo home quarantine.

They shall self-monitor their health for 14 days post-arrival.

If partially or not vaccinated, the travellers need to undertake measures, including submission of samples for post-arrival Covid test at the point of arrival, after which they will be allowed to leave the airport, home quarantined for seven days, a re-test would be conducted on the eighth day of arrival and if the results are negative, they have to further self-monitor their health for seven days.

“Fifteen days must have elapsed since completion of the COVID-19 vaccination schedule,” the guidelines said.

Travellers from countries excluding those “at-risk” will be allowed to leave the airport and they shall self-monitor their health for 14 days post-arrival. This applies to travellers from all countries, including those with which reciprocal arrangements for mutual acceptance of WHO-approved vaccines exist.

The total lists of 99 countries:

1 Albania

2 Andorra

3 Angola

4 Antigua & Barbuda

5 Argentina

6 Armenia

7 Australia

8 Austria

9 Azerbaijan

10 Bahrain

11 Bangladesh

12 Belarus

13 Belgium

14 Benin

15 Botswana

16 Brazil

17 Bulgaria

18 Canada

19 Chad

20 Columbia

21 Commonwealth of Dominica

22 Comoros

23 Costa Rica

24 Croatia

25 Czech Republic

26 Dominican Republic

27 Egypt

28 El Salvador

29 Estonia

30 Eswatini

31 Finland

32 France

33 Georgia

34 Germany

35 Ghana

36 Greece

37 Guatemala

38 Guyana

39 Haiti

40 Honduras

41 Hungary

42 Iceland

43 Iran

44 Ireland

45 Israel

46 Jamaica

47 Kazakhstan

48 Kuwait

49 Kyrgyz Republic

50 Lebanon

51 Liechtenstein

52 Malawi

53 Maldives

54 Mali

55 Mauritius

56 Mexico

57 Moldova

58 Mongolia

59 Montenegro

60 Namibia

61 Nepal

62 Netherlands

63 Nicaragua

64 Nigeria

65 Oman

66 Panama

67 Paraguay

68 Peru

69 Philippines

70 Poland

71 Qatar

72 Romania

73 Russia

74 Rwanda

75 San Marino

76 Serbia

77 Sierra Leone

78 Singapore

79 Slovak Republic

80 Slovenia

81 South Sudan

82 Spain

83 Sri Lanka

84 State of Palestine

85 Sudan

86 Sweden

87 Switzerland

88 Syria

89 The Bahamas

90 The United Kingdom

91 Trinidad & Tobago

92 Tunisia

93 Turkey

94 UAE

95 Uganda

96 Ukraine

97 United States of America

98 Uruguay

99 Zimbabwe