India softens norms for Bahrain travellers

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Staff Reporter

In a welcome move to the Indian diaspora in the Kingdom, the Government of India yesterday relaxed Covid norms for travellers from 82 countries, including Bahrain.

The list also includes Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, while many countries including the UAE and Kuwait have been exempted.

As per the new norms, fully vaccinated travellers are excluded from before travel RT-PCR tests and seven-day quarantine upon reaching the Indian destinations.

The new norms will come into effect from February 14.

Vaccinated travellers must present their vaccine certificates instead of RT-PCR test results.

“All travellers should submit complete and factual information in self-declaration form on the online Air Suvidha portal before the scheduled travel, including last 14 days travel details. They should either upload a negative RT-PCR report or a fully-vaccinated certificate.”

The government also warned that all those who fabricate vaccination certificates will be liable for criminal prosecution.

All passengers have been asked to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile devices.

“De-boarding should be done to ensure physical distance. Thermal screening would be carried out in respect of all the passengers by the health officials present at the airport. The self-declaration form filled out online shall be shown to the airport health staff. The passengers found to be symptomatic during screening shall be immediately isolated and taken to a medical facility as per health protocol. If tested positive, their contacts shall be identified and managed as per laid down protocol,” a statement issued by the government said.

The Daily Tribune reported about rising cases of Covid-19 infections in Bahrain digging a hole in pockets of outbound travellers, who had to cancel their tickets after testing positive for Covid-19 following RT-PCR tests, which are done 72 hours, before travel.

The Daily Tribune quoted a resident who had to cancel air tickets twice after he and his family member tested positive for the virus at a five-day interval.

“We desperately wanted to go home as there were two consecutive deaths in our family. First I was tested positive for the virus and we rebooked the ticket, but we had to cancel them all again as my daughter was tested positive after five days. I have suffered huge losses and I can only blame the situation for this ordeal,” he said.

Cancellations high

A leading airline executive said the industry was facing a difficult situation as many flights take off with a large number of vacant seats.

“Ticket cancellations have been high from the part of passengers to Dhaka, Indian and other South Asian cities. Book loads are extremely low. For passengers who tested positive for Covid, we are rescheduling tickets free of charges and this is putting a heavy financial burden on the airline. “

“Not all airlines are doing this, but we are doing as we don’t want our customers to suffer further during this tough time of the pandemic. The airline industry was almost inching back to normalcy, but now the rising cases have made the situation tough for us.”