Eligible travellers from India to Doha can now do away with the mandatory quarantine if they have received both doses of the WHO-approved Covishield vaccine at least 14 days before their departure.
However, one will have to provide a negative RT-PCR report to travel, and a visa on arrival (VoA) is not available. As of now, those seeking VoA are not allowed to travel to Qatar.
As per the reports, the categories that are eligible to travel from India to Qatar currently include Qatar nationals and their immediate families; those with permanent residency cardholders; business travellers, family visitors, and leisure travellers with pre-approved visas.
Further, all incoming travellers to Qatar will have to register on Ehteraz Website (www.ehteraz.gov.qa) at least 12 hours before boarding their flight, whereas passengers will also be required to download the app and upload the required official documents on it. The change in dropping quarantine norms have been put into place only for fully vaccinated eligible travellers.
As per the new rules, countries have been classified into three categories, i.e., green, yellow and red, with regard to COVID cases. A quarantine policy for each category will be in place for arrivals of unvaccinated travellers to Qatar. This updated policy also applies to those who have been inoculated with vaccines not recognised in Qatar, or who fall short of the 14 days vaccine administration period since the second dose.
Those coming from the green category will have to undergo domestic quarantine for five days and take an RT-PCR test in PHCC on the fourth day of their quarantine.
Those for the yellow category will need to undergo hotel quarantine for seven days and will have to take an RT-PCR test on the sixth day at their expense.
Further, those coming from the red category will have to undergo hotel quarantine for 10 days and undergo a PCR test on the seventh day at their expense.
However, those vaccinated travellers coming from the red category will need to undergo an RT-PCR test on arrival at Doha airport at their expense. Further, reports have it that 94 countries have been included in this list, including India.
Children aged between 0-11 years old will follow the same entry rules as that of their parents. If their parents are vaccinated, they will be considered vaccinated too. However, unvaccinated children aged between 12-17 years old will have to undergo quarantine as per the procedure assigned to the country of departure. In case of hotel quarantine, one parent can accompany them, even if the parent is vaccinated.