International flights to resume tomorrow; govt considers COVID-19 booster dose for Indians travelling overseas
With the restoration of normalcy, security personnel at airports are allowed to resume pat-down search of passengers, according to the Ministry of Civil Aviation
Representational image. News18
The scheduled international passenger flights are all set to resume from Sunday, after more than two years of COVID-19 infused ban on air travel.
Meanwhile, the government has restored valid e-tourist visas issued for five years to nationals of 156 countries, along with the regular paper tourist visa.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, "The Centre has announced several relaxations to the existing COVID-19 regulations at airports and on flights."
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New rules in place
According to the new rules announced by the ministry of civil aviation, cabin crew members will no longer be needed to wear personal protective equipment (PPE) kits and security personnel at airports are allowed to resume pat-down search of passengers.
Airlines are directed to leave three seats vacant on international flights for medical emergencies and in order to facilitate a “smooth conduct of air operations". Meanwhile, wearing protective face masks and maintenance of hand hygiene/sanitiser is still mandatory at airports and on flights, the Centre said, according to a report by CNN-News18.
“Airlines may carry a few additional PPE protective gears, sanitiser and N-95 masks, to handle any respiratory infections related to cases on air, for passengers as well as the crew," the ministry further noted.
Centre considering booster dose
The government may soon allow a precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for education, employment, sports and for attending official or business commitments, official sources said on Saturday.
Discussions are also underway on whether overseas-bound travellers opting for booster dose should receive the shot at private vaccination centres and pay for it, they said.
Currently, healthcare and frontline workers and those aged above 60 are being administered precaution doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
What is the reason
With scheduled international flights set to resume from Sunday, the Ministry of External Affairs recently highlighted the travel restrictions being enforced by certain countries in view of the requirement of a third/booster dose and how that is impacting necessary travel of Indian travellers, sources with knowledge of the matter told PTI.
The Union health ministry is also learnt to have received representations for allowing administration of precaution dose for those seeking to travel for employment opportunities, educational purpose or for attending official/business commitments, etc.
“In view of these, the health ministry is actively considering to allow booster/precaution dose of COVID vaccine for those seeking to travel abroad for jobs, admission in foreign educational institutions, participating in sports tournaments, in bilateral, multilateral meetings as part of India’s official delegation or for attending business commitments,” an official source told PTI.
No official directive in this regard has been issued by the Union health ministry yet.
The prioritisation and sequencing of the dose would be based on the completion of nine months from the date of administration of the second dose as per the existing guidelines.
Vaccination drive so far
The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16 January, 2021, with the healthcare workers getting inoculated in the first phase. Vaccination of the frontline workers started from 2 February last year.
The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 last year for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.
India launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from 1 April last year.
The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 years of age to be inoculated against the viral disease from 1 May last year.
The next phase of vaccination commenced from 3 January this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years.
India began administering precaution doses of the vaccines to the healthcare and frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities from 10 January this year.
COVID-19 vaccination for children in the age group of 12 -14 years started from 16 March this year.
With inputs from agencies
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