Mussoorie and Nainital, two of the popular tourist towns in Uttarakhand attract a lot of visitors over Christmas and New Year. Fearing that it may lead to spread of the COVID-19 cases in the state, the Uttarakhand High Court has made testing for visitors mandatory.
The decision was pronounced by Acting Chief Justice Ravi Kumar Malimath and Justice Ravindra Maithani, media reports said.
The testing will be done at the airport, railway stations and road borders, local media said.
Earlier in December, the high court had asked the district level monitoring committees (constituted by the court) of Dehra Dun and Nainital on how they would deal with the rise in number of visitors to the regions during the year end festive season.
Uttarakhand has seen a spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases after the mandatory requirement to produce negative RT-PCR reports by tourists entering the state was withdrawn in September, media reports said.
Therefore, travellers from outside Uttarakhand who have already made plans or booked transport and hotels should contact their travel agents or respective hotels to get details of the test arrangements as it is not clear how long it will take to get the test reports or about the cost of the tests.
Uttarakhand Tourism Development Council in collaboration with Nainital District Administration is organising the Nainital Winter Carnival from December 26-30 this year.
