Carry vaccination certificate, these airports won't ask for Covid-19 test report

Rajasthan, for instance, has waived the need for RT-PCR if passengers produce a final vaccination certificate

Air passengers heading out of the city now have a choice beyond negative RT-PCR reports to produce at an increasing number of destination airports: A vaccination certificate as proof of either the first dose or both.

Rajasthan, for instance, has waived the need for RT-PCR if arriving passengers produce a final vaccination certificate showing the second dose was taken at least 28 days earlier. Nagaland and Odisha, too, accept this certificate, while Punjab lets in passengers even with one dose taken two weeks before.

Read | You'll need -ve RT-PCR report to enter these states/UTs

But airports in Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Odisha and Andaman require negative RT-PCR reports not older than 48 hours, show the state-wise regulations updated till June 21, and collated by IndiGo and other airlines.

The period is extended to 72 hours when the destination airports are in Chandigarh, Goa, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Uttarakhand or West Bengal. Only Chhattisgarh and Leh have stretched the period to 96 hours.

Boarding disallowed

The negative RT-PCR rule is so strict in Goa, Nagaland and Meghalaya that passengers are not allowed to board the flight at the origin station, the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in the city’s case, if they don’t carry the report. In Andaman, passengers without it are sent back by the same flight.

Those without RT-PCR reports are required to take a mandatory Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) by Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Mizoram and Andaman. While most of these states do not charge for RAT, Kerala, Gujarat and Assam levy a fee ranging from Rs 500 to 900.

No quarantine

Passengers headed to airports in these states/Union Territories need not worry about quarantine if they carry a negative RT-PCR report: Chandigarh, Gujarat, Manipur, Odisha and Tripura. Haryana and Himachal Pradesh do not even ask for any test to leave travellers out of quarantine. Tamil Nadu requires negative, asymptomatic passengers to be in self-monitoring mode for two weeks.

Home quarantine

At one extreme is Andaman, which has mandated a seven-day home quarantine even with a negative RT-PCR report.

Uttar Pradesh has a 14-day rule, but it is exempted if the stay in the state is only for seven days.

Kerala mandates a two-week quarantine for those without an RT-PCR report. Madhya Pradesh, too, has this rule, but limits it to one week.