Turkey scraps mandatory quarantine rule for fully vaccinated travellers from India

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Turkey has declared that fully vaccinated travellers from India will no longer be subjected to a mandatory 14-day quarantine rule, with effect from September 4, the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi informed on Saturday.

The announcement will ease the travel restrictions for fully vaccinated passengers of 12 years of age and older, travelling from India or those who stayed in India in the last 14 days. The vaccines that have been approved by WHO or the Turkish Government are covered under this exemption.

In addition to WHO-approved vaccines, the vaccines approved by the Turkish Government are Pfizer Biontech, Sputnik V and Sinovac. For the same, a traveller must have taken the second dose (if Johnson&Johnson one dose is sufficient) at least 14 days prior to the date of travel.

Indian travellers who are vaccinated with Covishield will also be allowed to travel to Turkey. Once, Covaxin gets a nod from WHO, travellers vaccinated with the same will also be able to visit Turkey.

The fully vaccinated travellers are also required to submit their negative PCR test report taken 72 hours before departure in order to be exempt from the quarantine. Non-vaccinated travellers are required to undergo mandatory quarantine for 10 days in a hotel or a location mentioned in the declaration.

As of September 4, the Turkish government has successfully vaccinated 79 per cent of its population above 18 of age with the first dose and 62 per cent population above 18 of age with both doses.

The tourist inflow numbers in Turkey between January-July 2021, despite the pandemic, were recorded at 11.9 million. In July 2021, 4.3 million international visitors visited Turkey.

(Khaleej Times)