India reopens for foreign tourists after 20 months as Covid-19 cases decline. After halting tourist visas in March last year, India is now allowing quarantine-free entry to fully inoculated travelers from 99 reciprocating countries including the US, UK, UAE, Qatar, France, and Germany — to travel quarantine free in the country.
Foreign tourists intending to visit India can finally do so from today as the country has reopened its borders to mass foreign tourism, ending a 20-month clampdown as coronavirus infections across the country remain low. Since last month tourists on chartered flights were already being granted entry and Indian authorities expanded that to arrivals on commercial flights too.
After halting tourist visas in March last year, India is now allowing quarantine-free entry to fully inoculated travelers from 99 reciprocating countries. The government only requires such tourists to monitor their health for 14 days after arrival.
India suspended all visas granted to foreign travelers last year in view of the prevailing Covid-19 situation in the country and by extension, the rest of the world. Not just that, the country also imposed several other restrictions on international travel, including limiting the number of flights and constituting special ‘air bubble’ arrangements with countries with favorable situations for travel. However, with the gradual easing of the pandemic situation, foreign travelers were later allowed to avail of any other kind of Indian visa, except a tourist visa, to facilitate for themselves entry and stay in India.
Some countries are currently considered to be “at-risk” (from a covid point of view) by India which includes countries in Europe including UK, South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, Singapore, China, New Zealand, Mauritius, and Zimbabwe.
India's cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage exceeded 112.34 crores on Monday with the administration of 30,20,119 vaccine doses in the last 24 hours, informed the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
As per provisional reports till 7 am today, 1,12,34,30,478 doses were administered through 1,15,01,243 sessions.
Also Read: Delta variant wreaks havoc in China as Covid-19 cases see a sharp spike
Meanwhile, 10,229 new cases were reported in the last 24 hours. The active caseload is presently at 1,34,096 is the lowest in 523 days. The active cases presently constitute 0.39% of the country's total positive cases, which is the lowest since March 2020.