Editor's Pick: New travel restrictions in light of Omicron

With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus causing alarm, and with nations shutting down their borders once again, India has revised guidelines for all international passengers travelling to the country, which will come into effect from December 1. Every international passenger will now have to submit 14-day travel details on the Air Suvidha portal and upload a negative RT-PCR test, taken at least 72 before the journey, before boarding the flight. India has mandated that passengers from "high-risk countries" will have to take a COVID-19 test on arrival and wait for the results at the airport. If the test result is positive, the passenger will be quarantined in a medical facility. If it is negative, the passenger will have to undergo home quarantine for seven days and take a test on the eighth day. Countries categorised as "high risk" include the U.K., South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. Passengers coming from countries that are not considered high risk will have to self-monitor their health for 14 days. The government also announced it would adopt a wait-and-watch approach to the rapidly changing situation and review its decision on the "effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service". India had earlier planned to resume all international flights from December 15. Meanwhile, the Health Secretary warned that testing has gone down in India. Surveillance and testing will have to be ramped up to tackle any emergency, he said. Little is known about how Omicron, a variant of concern with over 50 mutations of which 32 are on the spike protein, is likely to cause severe disease and how effective the vaccines are against it. Nevertheless, the variant has triggered panic, with some countries announcing travel bans and others such as India adopting a more measured response. As this editorial points out, South Africa cannot be punished for detecting the variant and for alerting the world to it. South Africa has fewer cases compared to the West but also a very low vaccination rate. The "panic over the variant shifts blame away from the world's colossal failure in not making more vaccines available in Africa even as many countries roll out third doses", the editorial says. In this op-ed, Brian Wahl and Gautam Menon say that India should learn from the South Africa experience and "make data available in real time for the world to study." With the variant putting everyone on alert once again, this is the top pick of the day. The Hindu Editorials Scale up supplies: On Omicron variant Questionable criterion: On EWS quota income limit Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor's Pick and more. Click here Try out The Hindu's daily news quiz Which app has won regulatory approval to double the number of users on its payments service in India to 40 million? 1. Google Pay 2. WhatsApp 3. Amazon Pay 4. Paytm To find out the answer and play the full quiz, click here. [logo] Editor's Pick 29 NOVEMBER 2021 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( New travel restrictions in light of Omicron [New travel restrictions in light of Omicron] With the Omicron variant of the coronavirus causing alarm, and with nations shutting down their borders once again, [India has revised guidelines for all international passengers]( travelling to the country, which will come into effect from December 1. Every international passenger will now have to submit 14-day travel details on the Air Suvidha portal and upload a negative RT-PCR test, taken at least 72 before the journey, before boarding the flight. India has mandated that passengers from "high-risk countries" will have to take a COVID-19 test on arrival and wait for the results at the airport. If the test result is positive, the passenger will be quarantined in a medical facility. If it is negative, the passenger will have to undergo home quarantine for seven days and take a test on the eighth day. Countries categorised as "high risk" include the U.K., South Africa, Brazil, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong and Israel. Passengers coming from countries that are not considered high risk will have to self-monitor their health for 14 days. The government also announced it would adopt a wait-and-watch approach to the rapidly changing situation and review its decision on the "effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service". India had earlier planned to resume all international flights from December 15. Meanwhile, the Health Secretary warned that [testing has gone down in India](. Surveillance and testing will have to be ramped up to tackle any emergency, he said. Little is known about how Omicron, a variant of concern with over 50 mutations of which 32 are on the spike protein, is likely to cause severe disease and how effective the vaccines are against it. Nevertheless, the variant has triggered panic, with some countries announcing travel bans and others such as India adopting a more measured response. As this [editorial points out]( South Africa cannot be punished for detecting the variant and for alerting the world to it. South Africa has fewer cases compared to the West but also a very low vaccination rate. The "panic over the variant shifts blame away from the world's colossal failure in not making more vaccines available in Africa even as many countries roll out third doses", the editorial says. In this op-ed, Brian Wahl and Gautam Menon say that [India should learn from the South Africa experience]( and "make data available in real time for the world to study." With the variant putting everyone on alert once again, this is the top pick of the day. [underlineimg] The Hindu Editorials [Arrow][Scale up supplies: On Omicron variant]( [Arrow][Questionable criterion: On EWS quota income limit]( [underlineimg] Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor's Pick and more. [Click here]( Try out The Hindu's daily news quiz Which app has won regulatory approval to double the number of users on its payments service in India to 40 million? 1. Google Pay 2. WhatsApp 3. Amazon Pay 4. Paytm To find out the answer and play the full quiz, [click here](. [underlineimg] Today's Best Reads [[What the Omicron variant means for India] What the Omicron variant means for India]( [[Parliament proceedings live updates | Lok Sabha adjourned till 12:00 p.m. and Rajya Sabha till 12:19 p.m.] Parliament proceedings live updates | Lok Sabha adjourned till 12:00 p.m. and Rajya Sabha till 12:19 p.m.]( [[COP26 pledges need a new climate of cooperation] COP26 pledges need a new climate of cooperation]( [[COVID-19 | Centre tightens rules for flyers from abroad over Omicron risk] COVID-19 | Centre tightens rules for flyers from abroad over Omicron risk]( Copyright @ 2021, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](