Dear Community friends,

We here inform you that the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare of the Government of India has issued new guidelines for international arrival that will be applicable after 14 February. The main points are that quarantine after arrival will not be required any more. Passengers, who are fully vaccinated and belong to countries that have a mutual recognition agreement of the vaccine with India, can travel without any test before departure. The full text of the guidelines is available at this link.

We are also sharing below a note of Santé Coordination regarding the Covid situation in Auroville, see below.

Kindly yours,

The Working Committee

Dear Community Friends,

The Honourable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu has issued a new press release on 27 January 2022 with new Covid Guidelines.

The key points are:

• There will no longer be Sunday and night curfews.
• Schools and colleges may open from 1 February following standard guidelines.
• Kindergarten and nursery schools remain closed.
• Theatres, cinemas, gyms, spas, beauty salons, yoga centers, restaurants, jewelry shops, clothing shops are allowed to function with 50 per cent capacity.
• Indoor stadiums will be allowed to hold sports events with 50 percent of spectators.
• Events such as seminars, music and drama performances held in indoor venues will be allowed with a maximum of 50 percent capacity following standard operating procedures.
• Public events such as social, cultural and political gatherings will continue to be banned.
• Exhibitions and art festivals are not allowed to be held.
• Maximum attendance for marriages will be 100 persons and for funerals 50 persons.

The official Tamil text of the press release of the Honourable Chief Minister and the English translation are available at this link. We will update as and when there are new guidelines issued.

We would also like to inform you that we had many cases in the last two weeks, but since the new protocol indicates only seven days of quarantine most of them have completed their isolation period. The quarantine list is regularly updated and can be consulted at this link.

We request all Aurovilians, Newcomers, Volunteers and Guests who have arrived from abroad to inform santecoordination@auroville.org.in about their arrival, respect a 7-days quarantine and do a test on the 8th day in coordination with Sante, as per current government requirements. Unit holders employing volunteers, guest house managers and people who are receiving guests at their homes are kindly asked to cooperate.

Please, remember to continue applying all due precautions of wearing masks and maintaining distance when interacting with others and in public spaces/facilities, and regularly washing hands or using sanitizer.

With best wishes to all,

The Working Committee.