The mandatory COVID-19 testing rule imposed for passengers arriving from China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand has been dropped, the Union Health Ministry said on Friday.

The relaxation also includes dropping the mandate to upload the ‘Air Suvidha’ form for those coming in from these countries.

As per the notification, those arriving in India from any of these five countries will not have to undergo mandatory RT-PCR tests from 13 February 2023.

The Centre has taken this decision as these countries have been witnessing a sustained and significant decline in the trajectory of COVID-19 cases in the last four weeks, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said.

“The ministry is updating its ‘Guidelines for International Arrivals’ and dropping the existing requirements of pre-departure COVID-19 testing and uploading of the self-health declaration on Ministry of Civil Aviation’s ‘Air Suvidha’ portal applicable for international travellers coming from/via China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Thailand and Japan,” the health ministry said in a statement.

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However, the present exercise of randomly testing 2 percent of travellers coming into the country will continue, the statement read.

“In order to monitor infections due to mutated variants of SARS-CoV-2 among international travellers to India, the present exercise of random testing of two percent travellers irrespective of their country of origin upon arrival in India shall continue,” the letter read.

The government had earlier mandated passengers arriving from China, Singapore, Korea, Thailand and Japan to upload RT-PCR reports on the ‘Air Suvidha’ portal due to a spike in COVID cases.

Also read: Covid In India: Big step of Central Government, RT-PCR is necessary for passengers coming to India from these six countries