All international passengers coming to India will need to undergo a seven-day mandatory quarantine on arrival in India, even if they test negative for Covid-19 at the airport, the Union said in its revised guidelines issued on Friday.

The new rules will come into effect from January 11.

The international passengers will then have to undertake an RT-PCR test on the eighth day of arrival in the country.

Previously, travelers coming from countries specified as ‘at-risk’ had to submit samples for COVID testing post-arrival and were required to wait for their results at the airport before leaving or taking a connecting flight. If tested negative they were needed to undergo home quarantine for seven days and then get their RT-PCR test done on the eighth day.

The Union government also expanded the list of “at-risk” countries. It now includes the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Ghana, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Hong Kong, Israel, Congo, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tunisia, and Zambia.

India’s daily number of cases breached the 1 lakh mark again as the country registered 1,17,100 new infections of coronavirus in the last 24 hours, ending at 9 am on Friday.

With 30,836 new recoveries, the country’s active caseload is now at 3,71,363. The death toll increased to 4,83,178 after 302 patients succumbed to the deadly infection.