Jammu and Kashmir issued new travel guidelines for international tourists coming in from at-risk countries, over the fear of the new covid variant, as per new travel guidelines, those travellers who test negative at the Srinagar airport will have to go under home quarantine. The valley received 1.27 lakh tourists in November, and 97000 tourists in October, the highest in the last seven years.
According to the travel advisory, this home quarantine will last for seven days, with a follow up covid negative test after the eighth day. Travellers have also been advised to monitor themselves for at least two weeks.
Since the outbreak of the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to apply the rule of Test-Track-Treat-Vaccinate in order to ensure stringent implementation of containment measures. Furthermore, travellers who test positive for the virus will be sent to an institutional quarantine, and receive treatment.
The official guidelines said that “Rigorous screening and conducting of Covid-19 RT-PCR test shall be made mandatory at the Srinagar International Airport for International Arrivals as per the guidelines issued from time to time by MoHFW.”
The Union Territory conducted an RT-PCR test for 16000 passengers from at-risk countries on Friday, and a total of 18 samples have been sent for genome sequencing to check whether they are of the Omicron variant.
