India has decided to impose reciprocity on United Kingdom nationals arriving in India from the UK, said sources on Friday. The new regulations will come into effect from October 4 and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving here.
From October 4, all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake the following measures:
Pre-departure Covid-19 RT-PRC test within 72 hours before travel
Covid-19 RT-PCR test on arrival at airport
Covid-19 RT-PCR test on Day 8 after arrival
Mandatory quarantine at home or in the destination address for 10 days after arrival in India
The sources further added that authorities in the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Civil Aviation would be taking steps to implement the new measures.
The new guidelines have been announced in view of the UK govt’s restrictions, placing Indians who are vaccinated with Covishield in the category of ‘unvaccinated’.
While it has relaxed the rules for those vaccinated with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the same version of the vaccine being manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute of India has been kept out of the list.
Initially, the UK government did not even keep India on the list of countries whose vaccines are recognised in the UK.
After it mentioned Covishield following India’s nudge as India told that a similar action might be taken against people travelling to India from the UK, the government included Covishield and clarified that they do not have a problem with the vaccine, but they have some doubts regarding the vaccine certificate.
