India is likely to make the updating of coronaviruses test status on Air Suvidha mandatory for passengers from five countries, sources told India Today TV on Wednesday.
Air Suvidha is a portal where one must upload a negative coronavirus test report before taking a flight.
It is likely that this will be made mandatory for passengers from countries like Thailand Bangkok China, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Singapore.
Passengers planning to travel to India can only board the flights after uploading the test results on the Air Suvidha portal. International travellers from these countries will be able to participate in this exercise next week.
In the last week, India made RT-PCR mandatory for passengers coming from these countries after the alarming rise of Covid infections in China, and four other countries.
Sources told the news agency ANI that the following 40 days are going to be crucial as India may see a surge in Covid cases in mid of January.
India had mandated contactless self-declaration on the Air Suvidha Portal on 7 December 2021 but stopped doing so last month. The process stopped after some travellers said the Covid situation had abated in the country and that there was no need to force travellers to update the latest test report.
Congressman Shashi Tharoor said Air Suvidha was introduced when Covid was at its peak, aiming to track people landing in Indian airports. Why is it still mandatory for flyers to India to submit Air Suvidha? He asked and urged Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to review the requirement and lift the dead hand of bureaucracy Developed by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Air Suvidha is a digital portal where passengers travelling to India must provide their travel details and final stay along with their RT-PCR test and vaccination status.
In December last year, India mandated all international passengers arriving in the country to declare their current health status prior to boarding the portal, along with the required documents: copy of passport, PCR negative certificate from a test conducted within 72 hours of departure and the vaccination certificate.
The copy received in the e-mail was essential for arrival in India.