Govt on alert, suspends flights to/from UK from Dec 23 to Dec 31
Amid fears over the spread of a mutated strain of coronavirus — reportedly 70 per cent more infectious than the one that caused the Covid-19 — India has joined over two dozen countries in suspending all flights from and to the United Kingdom from December 23 to December 31.
Union Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan said the authorities are keeping a close watch and there is no need to panic as the Government is alert on the issue.
The ban will start from Wednesday and passengers arriving from the UK in flights that will land in India by 11.59 pm on Tuesday will undergo mandatory RT-PCR test at the airports concerned. Those who test positive will be sent to institutional quarantine while the rest will be asked to home-isolate for seven days.
Several major European countries including France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria, Ireland, Burgalia, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, in addition to countries like Canada, Kuwait, Colombia, Morocco, Iran, Israel, Turkey were among those that shut off travel ties after Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that a highly infectious new strain of the virus was a danger to the country. Saudi Arabia, notably, has suspended all international flights over the fear of the new strain of coronavirus.
According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Government has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India will be suspended from 11.59 pm December 22 till 11.59 pm on December 31. Consequently, flights from India to the UK will also stand suspended during the period.
“As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from the UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before December 22 at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned,” the Ministry said.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter that those passengers who are found Covid positive would be sent for institutional quarantine set up by the States or Union Territories (UTs). “Those found negative should be advised to isolate at home for 7 days and will be medically monitored by the States/UTs,” Puri added.
Till date, the rules stated that if an international passenger had a Covid negative certificate from a test done 72 hours prior to the journey, s/he need not undergo Covid-19 test again on arrival at the Indian airport.
The decision followed an expert meeting of the Health Ministry’s joint monitoring group (JMG) on Covid-19 which reasoned for abundant caution as the new strain is under review.
The JMG met on Monday to study evidence from the UK which said the bee strain was out of the country and was 70 per cent more infectious than the original.
India and the UK were connected by several airlines including Air India, Vistara, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic connecting London to Indian airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Amritsar. While regular scheduled international flights are still not allowed by authorities here, India and the UK had entered an air bubble arrangement. Four airlines – Air India, Vistara, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways – operate over 40 weekly flights between India and the UK.
On December 19, the British Government had alerted the World Health Organisation about a new variant of the coronavirus that the Prime Minister said maybe “up to 70 per cent” more transmissible than earlier strains. The new strain – now officially named VUI-202012/01 – showed a “substantial increase in transmissibility”.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock says “the new variant is out of control”. The United Kingdom announced a surprise lockdown in London and other parts of the country amid the surge in cases due to the new strain of the virus. Europe has been walloped this fall by soaring new infections and deaths due to a resurgence of the virus, and many nations have reimposed a series of restrictions to reign in their outbreaks.
Tuesday, 22 December 2020 | PNS | New Delhi
