- NET Web Desk
In a major relief for international travelers to Sikkim, the state government has partially relaxed the ban on entry of foreign nationals. Sikkim has also made it mandatory for them to carry a RT-PCR negative report for entry into the state.
It is to be noted that, the state of Sikkim shares international borders with Nepal, Bhutan and China. The ban was imposed last week due to the threat of Omicron variant of the Sars-Cov-2 virus.
According to an order issued by SC Gupta, chief secretary of Sikkim, “All foreigners including those from Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh who are already in India for more than 10 days and are travelling to Sikkim shall be permitted to enter the state provided they produce a negative RT-PCR test report conducted within 72 hours of their entry to the state.”
It may be mentioned that, Sikkim had banned entry of foreign nationals in March last year following the outbreak of Covid-19 cases in India. It was also one of the few states to announce an early ban on the entry of people from outside the state, last year.
The four-day-long Sikkim Global Film Festival, which was supposed to begin on December 10 in Gangtok has already been called off.
The state till Tuesday has reported 405 deaths due to Covid 19 and 32,382 positive cases out of which 31,438 have recovered. Eight new Covid-19 cases were reported on Tuesday apart from 24 recoveries.