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Pre-booking RT-PCR Test Mandatory for coming to India from at-Risk Countries, Effective from December 20

The government of India has made compulsory pre-booking of an on arrival RT-PCR test for passengers arriving in the country from the countries that have been declared at risk of having the Omicron covid variant. This order also applies to passengers that might not be travelling directly from any of the countries labelled at risk but had been in the countries in the past 14 days.

This new rule is bound to be effective from 20th December 2021 (19th December 2021, 11:59 p.m onwards), following the last one that had been effected on 1st December, which required all passengers arriving in the country from at-risk countries to be tested upon arrival and undergo a 7 days home quarantine.

The countries labelled as at-risk are;

  • Brazil
  • Botswana
  • China
  • Ghana
  • Mauritius
  • New Zealand
  • Tanzania
  • South Africa
  • Countries in Europe, including the United Kingdom
  • Hong Kong
  • Israel 
  • Zimbabwe

All airlines are required to check the compulsory pre-booking of the tests by their passengers before letting them board the flights. The passengers can also do the pre-booking at the airport itself before departure. The directive will be implemented from the 20th December 2021 to travellers arriving at the Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Bengaluru airports.

Here is the directive from the Indian government’s Ministry of Civil Aviation;

PRE-BOOKED RT-PCR-TEST-MANDATED-FOR-PERSONS-TRAVELLING-TO-INDIA

 countries into the six major airports:

PRE-BOOKED RT-PCR-TEST-MANDATED-FOR-PERSONS-TRAVELLING-TO-INDIAN

All passengers arriving from the at-risk countries into the six major airports will have to pre-book their rapid-PCR test on arrival before boarding their flights to India. If not done, they will have to do it at the airport before leaving for India.