10-day quarantine for all UK citizens arriving in India from Monday 4th October as reciprocal measures

NEW DELHI Oct 1: India has decided to impose reciprocal measures on UK nationals arriving in India from the UK as as United Kingdom has so far not recognised CoWIN certificate, reported ANI on Friday while quoting sources.

New regulations will come into effect from October 4, and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving from the UK, ANI said.

From October 4, all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status, will have to undertake – pre-departure Covid-19 RT-PCR test within 72 hours before travel, RT-PCR test on arrival at airport, RT-PCR test on Day 8 after arrival, the news agency reported.

Despite their vaccination status, all passengers from the United Kingdom will have to undergo a mandatory quarantine upon arrival in India. In addition, they will need to produce the result of the RT-PCR test done within 72 hours before travel. After their arrival and on day 8, they will have to take the RT-PCR tests again. The mandatory quarantine can be done at home or at the destination address. These new rules are exactly in line with UK’s travel rules.

The new regulations will come into effect from October 4 when the UK government is also implementing its new travel regulations which do not exempt Covishield-vaccinated Indians from mandatory quarantine.

These measures, if implemented, will come in the back of the UK government recently issuing an updated international travel advisory to include AstraZeneca Covishield among the eligible COVID-19 vaccine formulations but kept India out of the 18 countries on an approved vaccinations list, requiring Indians to follow rules set out for “non-vaccinated” travellers.

Despite the inclusion of Covishield, Indian travellers are not exempt from the quarantine rules under the UK’s new international travel norms that will come into force from October 4, with the British officials in New Delhi maintaining that the main issue is vaccine certification and not the vaccine and that both India and the UK are holding talks to mutually resolve the matter.

According to the UK rules, Indian travellers who have received both doses of the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) will be considered unvaccinated and will have to undergo self-isolation for 10 days.

There was widespread condemnation of the UK’s decision in India to not cover Covishield under the reviewed international travel norms and the government on Tuesday warned of “reciprocal measures” if its concerns relating to the vaccine certification are not addressed by October 4 when these norms come into effect.

The Indian government had said it is working with several countries to recognise India’s vaccine certification on a “mutual reciprocal basis”. – ANI