India is issuing tourist visas as borders reopen to international visitors

Tourists have begun traveling to India today as it opened its borders to foreign visitors on commercial flights for the first time since March 2020.

After 18 months of border closures and punishing COVID-19 surges, India is welcoming tourists once again. Although tourists have been able to travel to India since October 15 on chartered flights, today marks the first time since March 2020 that commercial flights are landing in India as foreign visitors from 99 countries, including the US, UK and most European countries, are given the green-light to enjoy quarantine-free travel there.

India's Ministry of Home Affairs said it will issue 500,000 tourists or e-visas through March 2022, as case numbers begin to fall across the country. Arrivals must show proof of full vaccination and test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of boarding their flight to India. 

The US Embassy in India said that "travelers coming from or transiting through locations listed as Countries At-Risk and which do not have a vaccination agreement with India will have to either self-monitor for 14 days post arrival (if fully vaccinated) or submit to a post-arrival COVID-19 test and home quarantine for seven days (if partially or not vaccinated)."

COVID-19 case numbers are decreasing in India after the peak in spring ©Sean3810/Getty Images

India was the first nation to be hit by a major COVID-19 surge driven by the Delta variant earlier this year, with the country recording more than 400,000 cases a day at its peak in spring. It's still the second worst-hit country for COVID-19 infections, after the US, but fortunately cases are steadily decreasing since the peak and vaccination rates are increasing.

On Monday, India celebrated a milestone in its vaccination campaign—the world's largest—with the Health Ministry announcing that 112.34 crore (around 1,123 million) doses have now been administered.

About 370 million people in India are now fully vaccinated, according to Oxford's Our World In Data—which represents 27% out of a population of 1.38 billion.