Tourists visiting Himachal Pradesh will not be “harassed” for a coronavirus negative test report at the State’s borders, Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on April 13.
Days after the State government made it mandatory for people coming from seven worst-affected States to show a COVID-19 negative test report on entering the State, Mr. Thakur said they have put in place a mechanism for monitoring tourists on their arrival at the place of their stay.
“We have taken care of our tourism industry to ensure it does not suffer this session as the coronavirus pandemic affected it last year. So, in the SOP released for the industry, we have put in place a mechanism to monitor it accordingly. Tourists and other visitors will not be harassed for corona reports at the State’s borders because it causes a lot of inconvenience and difficulty to them,” he told reporters here.
As a majority of the visitors stay in hotels, the administration has put in place a mechanism to keep tab at their place of stay, he said.
The Himachal Pradesh government on April 11 made it mandatory for people coming from seven States which have witnessed a spike in coronavirus cases to show a COVID-19 negative test report upon entering the State. Mr. Thakur had said then that people coming from Punjab, Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh need to carry a negative RT-PCR report not earlier than 72 hours while visiting Himachal Pradesh from April 16.
The chief minister arrived here this morning from Shimla on a day’s visit. He will preside over a high-level meeting to review the coronavirus situation in Kangra district and its surrounding areas.
