Bhutan to lift mandatory five-day quarantine for incoming travellers

PMO announces that mandatory five-day quarantine will be lifted and replaced with a 24-hour quarantine for incoming travellers

Monks from the Paro monastic body performing a rite as 500,000 doses of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine arrive from the United States at Paro International Airport, Bhutan lst year (AP)

Bhutan’s prime minister announced on Sunday that there shall be no mandatory five-day quarantine period for travellers from 4 July onwards.

Officials in capital Thimphu said the strict measures imposed in the country at the beginning of the pandemic were “necessary” to safeguard it from Covid-19 that wreaked havoc globally. But they also acknowledged the “inconvenience to travellers” these measures caused.

Bhutan closed its borders at the beginning of the pandemic to all foreign tourists. A few days ago, on 30 June, Bhutan officials said the country will reopen for international tourists on 23 September — first time since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020.

The PMO statement noted that there has been a low positivity rate (of 1.46 per cent) across the country and “promising trends of zero fatalities and hospitalisations to date”.

“Therefore, taking into consideration these positive developments, a new arrangement of the ‘Test-and-Go’ system — a mandatory stay at home/hotel quarantine for 24 hours or until negative RT-PCR result is declared — will be instituted effective from July 4, 2022, where the stay home/hotel duration will be strictly monitored.”

The new mandate comes into effect from Monday.

According to the PMO, “all incoming travellers are eligible for the test-and-go system with a mandatory observation of 24 hours in a hotel or home (separate room) until the RT-PCR test result is declared”.

Despite doing away with the mandatory five-day quarantine, travellers will still have to face strict procedures. “While entering Bhutan, an RT-PCR test sample will be collected from the visitors and they will have to provide a vaccination certificate or “evidence of Covid-19 infection in the six months prior to the visit”.

Anyone testing positive for Covid will be required to self-isolate for five days at home or at a hotel, it added.

Besides Paro, Phuentsholing, Gelephu and Samdrup Jongkar in Bhutan, the test results at other points of entry “may take more than 24 hours due to the non-availability of the RT-PCR testing facility”.

Those already undergoing the five-day quarantine and who have tested negative will be allowed to end their quarantine as per the “test-and-go” protocol.

The Bhutan government had imposed a 21-day quarantine system initially which was gradually brought down to five days.

The fresh mandate by the PMO also stated that “all incoming travellers will be required to fill up and submit the ‘test-and-go’ available on the ministry of health website at the points of entry”.

Tourists to Bhutan will also have to make arrangements to travel in private cars. According to the new rules, travellers will only be allowed to go to a destination that doesn’t entail a night halt.

Besides these, the announcement also made it clear to travellers that “during travel, the test-and-go individual shall avoid stopping in public places, entering any shops, hotels/restaurants along the way and avoid coming in contact with other people.”

Twenty-one people have died of Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic in Bhutan.