Fully vaccinated tourists free to explore SL without restrictions

Fully vaccinated tourists with a negative PCR result at the time of departure will be allowed to enter the country without the need for on-arrival test from today.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) announced its decision to do away with the on-arrival PCR testing for fully vaccinated passengers which means visitors who tested negative at the PCR test 72 hours prior to onboarding the aircraft will no longer have to spend a day in quarantine as called for in the previous health guidelines.

Guidelines remain unchanged for unvaccinated tourists as they are expected to undergo the on-arrival PCR test and travel under the bio-bubble until the PCR test result is negative.

The guidelines have been relaxed to help uplift the tourism sector that took a hard hit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The decision comes just days after the operation of ‘Hospinorm Laboratory Lounge’, declared open at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) on Saturday, was suspended due to its inability to carry out and release results of on-arrival PCR tests within three hours as planned.

Tourism industry stakeholders moved back to carrying out the on-arrival PCR test at the Level-1 hotel via an accredited laboratory reduced the inconvenience experienced by tourists.