India 'Reciprocates': Covid Tests, 10-day Quarantine For All UK Visitors From Oct 4

India has decided to ‘reciprocate’ to the United Kingdom’s recently-released Covid-related travel rules that do not recognize Indian vaccines and require fully jabbed Indians to undergo 10 days of quarantine.

India has decided to impose reciprocity on UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, top sources in the government told CNN-News18 on Friday. Our new regulations will come into effect from October 4 and will be applicable to all UK nationals arriving from the UK. Regardless of vaccine status, arrivals will have to undergo tests and mandatory quarantine.

The latest changes in rules by the UK, announced last month, mandate that only people who have got both shots of a double-dose vaccine such as Oxford-AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna or the single shot Janssen vaccine “under an approved vaccination program in the UK, Europe, US or UK vaccine programme overseas” will be considered fully vaccinated.

In retaliation, after making several appeals to the UK authorities, India will implement the following rules for all UK nationals arriving in India from the UK, irrespective of their vaccination status. From October 4, all these fliers 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

Authorities in the Ministry of Health and MOCA would be taking appropriate steps to implement the new measures, the sources said.

The UK rules, which are to become effective from October 4, have irked the Indians with former Union ministers Jairam Ramesh and Tharoor calling it “offensive and smacks of racism”. India’s Covishield vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and manufactured in India by Pune-based Serum Institute, is not recognised by Britain under new rules despite being identical to the doses given to millions of Britons.

The UK government’s decision to not recognise Covishield is “discriminatory” and impacts the travel of Indians travelling to that country, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla had said, adding that it is within the country’s “right to take reciprocal measures” if the matter was not resolved.

Read all the Latest News , Breaking News and IPL 2022 Live Updates here.