Covid-19: Centre to issue uniform advisory for inter-state travel

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The Central government is planning to introduce a uniform travel advisory for all the citizens in the country. Dr NK Arora, chairman of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI) said that they recently reiterated their stand to the Centre regarding the exclusion of fully vaccinated travellers from RT-PCR tests for inter-state travel across the country, according to a report in The Times of India.

This development comes at a time when many states are asking even fully vaccinated travellers from other states to undergo a mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival.

Dr Arora said that the health ministry will be again circulating the recommendations to all the states and a protocol has been laid out already. As per protocol prepared by NTAGI, any individual who has received both the doses and has completed 14 days after the second dose should be exempted from all travel restrictions including the requirement of a negative RT-PCR report. They are also exempted from any sort of quarantine measures.

Challenges faced by travellers

Many fully vaccinated passengers are facing a two-pronged problem when it comes to travelling in India. Many states have made a negative RT-PCR report compulsory for entry into their states. At the same time, many individuals are complaining of issues pertaining to their vaccinations certificates on CoWin portal, which are often rife with errors like incorrect dates, vaccine doses, and vaccine type.

Dr Arora said that when it comes to vaccination certificates, measures are being taken to rectify the errors that have occurred in certain certificates. He also said that in case of errors, the beneficiaries should take the responsibility of going back to the vaccination centre on time and getting them corrected.

An official from the union health ministry has said that the Centre has undertaken an exercise to find a solution to rectify errors on the certificates, as per the media report.

Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, director of the National Centre for Disease Control said uniform travel norms should be drafted and put in place to resolve the problems faced by travellers across the country. He added that Maharashtra has already declared that people who are fully vaccinated do not need to undergo testing.