From Saturday, passengers flying out of India will need to furnish a negative RT-PCR report with a QR code on it, reported News18. The guidelines were issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation last week.

The step has been taken to ensure that the RT-PCR test report is genuine after there were incidents of flyers producing fake or edited reports. It will also ensure minimum physical contact.

Airlines operating in the international sectors have been advised to make the necessary arrangements. “The airline operators are advised to accept only those passengers who are carrying a negative RT-PCR test report with QR code for boarding international flights departing from India after 0001 hours on 22nd May 2021,” the ministry had said in a release.

Currently, India has placed a ban on international commercial passenger flights till May 31. Several countries, including the United States, Australia, Canada, the UAE and Britain, have also banned flights from India to curb the spread of the highly contagious Covid-19 strain that was first found in the country. However, repatriation and flights scheduled under the travel bubbles that India has with many countries will continue.

India on Saturday registered 2,57,299 new coronavirus cases and 4,194 deaths in the last 24 hours. With this, the country’s tally rose to 2,62,89,290 while the toll climbed to 2,95,525 since the pandemic broke out in January 2020.