RT-PCR pre-booking mandatory for flyers from 'at risk nations' to 6 Indian metros

The Centre on Tuesday announced that travellers coming to six metro airports in India from countries labelled 'at risk' will have to pre-book their RT-PCR tests from the midnight of December 19. The six metro airports includes Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

Hyderabad: Starting midnight of December 19, passengers coming to six metro airports from countries 'at risk' will have to pre-book their RT-PCR tests, the government announced on Tuesday. The new measure is introduced to ward off any new threats emerging from Omicron, the new variant of Covid-19.

As per by a memo issued by the Civil Aviation Ministry, the six metro airports includes Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kolkata.

However, the Centre clarified that the passengers would be allowed to board the flight even if they fail to pre-book the RT-PCR tests but added that in that situation, it would be the responsibility of the airlines to identify and accompany such passengers to the registration counter at the airport for testing.

As per the health ministry, on the list of ‘at risk’ countries are European nations, including the UK, in addition to South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong and Israel.

India, in the last 24 hours, recorded As many as 7,995 recoveries from Covid 19 and 252 deaths.