India has brought back a compulsory health screening system for everyone flying into the country, regardless of nationality or where they are travelling from. The move is a direct response to an Ebola outbreak in central Africa that the World Health Organization has classed as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, and it is a useful reminder of how quickly border health measures can be switched back on when a new threat emerges.
What Has Changed
From 25 June 2026, every international passenger arriving in India must complete a Self-Declaration Form through a portal known as Air Suvidha 2.0, run jointly by India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation, Delhi International Airport Limited and the Directorate General of Health Services. The form must be submitted before immigration clearance and can be completed up to 24 hours before arrival, ideally during online check-in.
The declaration asks travellers for their passport and flight details, their itinerary, and their travel history over the previous 21 days. It also asks whether they have visited, or had contact with anyone who has visited, the affected region, and whether they have any relevant symptoms. Once submitted, the information is shared in real time with airport health officers, immigration and India’s disease surveillance teams, so that anyone flagged as higher risk can be directed to further screening on arrival.
The system is designed to be entirely digital. There is no paper form to fill in on landing; travellers simply show their confirmation or QR code if asked, at the health desk or immigration counter.
Why It Has Returned
This is not a new system being built from scratch. Air Suvidha was first introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic to track inbound travellers and their vaccination and test status, and it was withdrawn in November 2022 once that situation had stabilised.
It has now been revived because of an outbreak of Ebola disease, specifically the Bundibugyo strain, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. The World Health Organization declared this outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 17 May 2026, which gave countries around the world a formal trigger to reinstate enhanced screening measures. Neighbouring countries, including South Sudan, are also being treated as higher risk.
Health authorities have noted that the strain involved has historically had a high fatality rate during past outbreaks, and that there is currently no licensed vaccine for it. That absence of a vaccine is one of the reasons screening and early detection at borders are being treated as the main tool available, rather than a back-up to other protective measures.
The Wider Preparedness Lesson
The detail of this particular form matters less than what it demonstrates about how outbreak response actually works in practice. The infrastructure for border health screening did not need to be built from nothing; it had already been used once, was mothballed, and could be switched back on within weeks of a new threat being formally recognised. That pattern is worth remembering. Many countries, including the UK, retain similar contingency systems that can be reactivated quickly once a risk is identified, even years after they were last used.
For anyone with travel plans, the practical takeaway is straightforward: entry requirements tied to public health emergencies can change at short notice, and they do not always make headline news in the way a lockdown announcement would. Anyone travelling internationally, especially to or via regions with an active outbreak, should get into the habit of checking official government and airline guidance close to their departure date, rather than relying on what was true when the trip was booked.
More broadly, this is a reminder that the systems and habits built up during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as digital health declarations, contact tracing capability and rapid information-sharing between aviation and health authorities, have not disappeared. They have simply moved into the background, ready to be redeployed if a new pathogen demands it. Being aware that this capability still exists, and that it can be activated quickly, is a useful part of building a realistic picture of how the next health emergency, large or small, is likely to unfold.
If you found this useful, you may want to look at our other articles on outbreak preparedness and what past lockdowns can teach us about staying ready for whatever comes next. Get The Book – Preparing for Lockdown