Good news is that now travellers from India can tick off their long pending travel list, after the much severe Covid lockdown, as now many countries have started to allow tourists into their borders.
As the Covid situation is somewhat stable in India, many countries have started allowing Indians into their borders to fly in for non-essential travel. In that list, Maldives and Germany have opened their borders for non-essential travellers. Besides, Canada has also brought in a slew of travel relaxations and has exempted fully vaccinated people from mandatory quarantine from July 5th onwards.
Canada
The Public Health Agency of Canada announced on July 3 that they will ease travel restrictions only for citizens and permanent residents of the country. The move is aimed at facilitating international students, relatives of permanent residents, and temporary workers with valid work permits.
All travellers, including Indians, have to mandatorily provide a negative Covid-19 test report taken within 72 hours (3 days) before their entry to Canada.
Those entering into the country must be vaccinated with both the doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. At the moment, the Canadian government accepts Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Covishield, and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. It is to be noted that India’s indigenous vaccine Covaxin and Russian-made Sputnik V haven’t been given a nod by Canada yet.
Those who haven’t been fully vaccinated or has been inoculated with a vaccine yet to be approved by Canada, must quarantine themselves for three days at a government-approved hotel while waiting for their report of a Covid-19 test done on arrival at the airport.
Travellers who have previously contracted the virus need to mandatorily provide proof of Covid-19 test conducted between 14-90 days prior to their entry to Canada. Since direct flights to Canada are banned till July 21, travellers need to take connecting flights.
Maldives
Flight operations to Maldives, one of the most preferred tourist destinations in the world, is about to begin next week from July 15. If you’re planning to fly from India, then please note that Go First, which was GoAir before, will be operating flights from Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai to Malé from July 15th onwards.
The flight will be available twice a week on every Thursdays and Sundays. Subsequently, from August 4, more flights will operate on Wednesdays and Saturdays. And if everything goes well, then from September 3 onwards, the flights between the two countries will start functioning on a daily basis.
Germany
German health agency Robert Koch Institute has lifted its ban on travellers from five countries hit by the Delta variant of COVID-19, including India, Nepal, Russia, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. On July 7, these countries were reclassified as “high-incidence areas” instead of the “virus variant country” category. The international travel relaxations were brought in by Germany as Delta variant cases were on a steady decline.
Only citizens and residents of Germany are permitted to enter from a “virus variant country” and are subject to a two-week quarantine, regardless of whether they are fully vaccinated or can provide a negative Covid-19 test.
By contrast, anyone can enter from a high-incidence country as long as they provide a negative Covid test on arrival. They must in principle enter a 10-day quarantine but can end it after five days with another negative test.
