In a big relief to international passengers arriving in India, the Union Health Ministry has removed provision of uploading self-declaration form on Air Suvidha portal.

The revised order comes into effect from November 22. Air Suvidha form was a self declaration to be mandatorily filled by all international arriving passengers to India disclosing their current health status and recent travel details, among others.

“AirSuvidha was introduced when Covid was at its peak, aiming to track people landing in Indian airports. With normal life back, why is it still mandatory for flyers to India to submit #AirSuvidha? Urge @JM_Scindia  to review this requirement & lift the dead hand of bureaucracy,” tweeted Congress leader Shashi Tharoor recently. 

The revised guidelines for international arrivals state, “Planning for Travel: All travellers should preferably  be fully vaccinated as per approved primary schedule against Covid in their country.”

During air travel, the ministry said that in-flight announcement about the ongoing pandemic, including precautionary measures to be followed such as preferable use of masks and following physical distances, should be made in flights/ travel at all points of entry.

Any passenger having symptoms of coronavirus during travel should be isolated as per standard protocol, the ministry added.

All travellers will need to self-monitor their health post arrival also shall report to their nearest health facility or call National helpline number (1075) / state helpline number in case they have any symptoms suggestive. The guidelines have been “revised in light of sustained declining Covid-19 trajectory and significant advances being made in Covid-19 vaccination coverage both globally as well as in India”, stated the order.

In line with the Government of India’s policy of a graded approach to the COVID-19 management response, the Ministry of Civil Aviation’s last week said that the wearing of masks would no longer be mandatory in the flights and will be only advisable now.

In the wake of the pandemic, scheduled domestic flight services were suspended for two months starting from March 25, 2020. Scheduled international flight services, which was also suspended from the same day, was restored only from March 27 this year.

India logged 406 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 4,46,69,421 while the active cases dipped to 6,402, as per official data on Monday.