The Kolkata airport authorities have announced that as per state government guidelines, passengers flying to Bengal from Pune, Mumbai and Chennai would have to mandatorily produce a Covid RT-PCR negative report from 8 August, unlike passengers of other states for whom a full vaccination certificate will also suffice for clearance.
An airport official said that according to the revision in state government guidelines, which previously made the options of both RT-PCR and full-vaccination certificate available for passengers travelling to Bengal has now made exceptions for passengers flying from Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. The revision in the guidelines is being attributed to the spurt in Covid cases in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
Passengers from these three cities need to produce a negative report for a test conducted within 72 hours of flight departure. The guideline will come into effect from 8 August, it was informed. At present, the guidelines for domestic flyers to Bengal states that it is compulsory for all passengers coming to the state of West Bengal to carry either proof of full vaccination or a Covid negative RTPCR report for such test conducted within 72 hours before flight departure time.
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The announcement, however, was met with complaints from flyers that the RTPCR test reports are neither checked at the boarding airport nor at the Kolkata airport. They complained that without a check at the airports, the unnecessary cost has to be incurred to get the tests done.
The state’s guidelines for flyers to Bengal state that it is an obligation of the airline staff to ensure and verify at the origin airport, the RTPCR negative report on passengers boarding from outside the state of West Bengal. The state and the destination airport’s obligations are concerned with thermal screening and health profiling of passengers on arrival.
For symptomatic passengers, the state health authorities will decide the quarantine requirement on a case by case basis.
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