PremiumSeveral countries have started allowing Indians to fly in for non-essential travel as the country continues to witness a decline in Covid-19 cases.
Canada, Germany and Maldives are the three latest countries that have opened up travel for Indian citizens.
From next week, Indians will be allowed to enter Canada by taking connecting flights as direct flights remain prohibited till July 21.
The Indian travellers will have to produce a negative Covid-19 test result taken at the final point of departure to Canada.
"Fully vaccinated travellers allowed to enter Canada may be exempted from federal quarantine and day 8 testing starting July 5. Only vaccines approved by the Government of Canada will be accepted," Public Health Agency of Canada tweeted last week.
Canada has so far approved the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Astra Zeneca/Covishield, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
However, Canada has not approved Covaxin from Bharat Biotech and Sputnik V from the Russian Gamaleya Center.
Restrictions will remain in place for those not fully vaccinated or vaccinated with a jab not authorised in Canada. Such travellers will have to complete the three-day quarantine at a hotel while awaiting results of their tests, submit to a second test on day eight of their arrival and complete the full 14-day period of self-isolation.
However, fully vaccinated individuals will be allowed to skip the mandatory three-day institutional isolation in Canada.
Vaccination status will have to be uploaded on the Canadian government’s ArriveCan app before reaching Canada.
Besides, travellers will have to provide contact information of themselves and other people who are travelling with them.
A traveller also needs to mentions--Purpose of travel, date of arrival, flight number, airport, and airline on ArriveCAN app.
Canada eased travel restrictions will be for permanent residents, international students and temporary workers with a valid work permit.
In the case of Germany, the country's health agency Robert Koch Institute has lifted its ban on travellers from five countries hit by the Delta strain COVID-19, including India, UK, Russia, Nepal, and Portugal.
Germany reclassified India under the "high-incidence areas" from "virus variant countries".
The change eases a ban on entry for travellers who are not German residents or citizens.
Germany had introduced "virus variant country" travel category to prevent the entry of the Delta coronavirus variant.
As for Maldives, international flight will resume from July 15. The island nation has announced the reopening of its international borders with many South Asian countries, including India.
Go First, which was GoAir till a few weeks ago, will operate flights from Delhi, Bengaluru and Mumbai to Maldives's capital Malé starting 15 July.
From the aforementioned cities, Go First will start with a twice-weekly schedule (Thursday and Sunday), add two more flights (Wednesday and Saturday) from 4 August and finally go daily from 3 September.
Meanwhile, IndiGo has announced direct flights from Mumbai, Kochi and Bengaluru. From Kochi and Bengaluru, IndiGo will fly from 15 July on Thursdays. Flights from Mumbai start 16 July (on Fridays and Saturdays), then daily from 20 July. Flights from all three cities arrive in Malé between 1 pm and 4 pm.
