Travelers from the UK who land at any airport in India before the flight ban takes effect at midnight on Tuesday will have to undergo mandatory RT-PCR tests, according to which institutional quarantine will be reported for at least 14 days or supervised home isolation for a week, civil aviation minister HS Puri tweeted.
Maharashtra went one step further and imposed a nightly curfew from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m. within the boundaries of municipal corporations across the state from Tuesday through January 5, citing the emergence of the new strain of coronavirus. Only emergency services such as transportation and supply of milk and vegetables will be allowed. The Christmas and New Year celebrations, large gatherings, parties, functions, shops, hotels and theaters must end at 23:00. People have been advised to get home before 11pm. M. And that they don’t come out until 6 a.m. M. Unless there is an emergency.
Karnataka It has also made Covid testing mandatory for passengers arriving from Denmark and the Netherlands. All people with a history of travel from the UK since Dec. 7 will be tracked and evaluated, the state health department said.
In a circular addressed to all airlines, the aviation regulator DGCA asked them to strictly adhere to the Tuesday arrival deadline of 11:59 pm for flights from the UK. Air India and Vistara have advanced their Tuesday departures from Mumbai and Delhi by five and 10 hours, respectively, so that these flights can return before closing. Airlines operating between India and other countries are prohibited from allowing any traveler arriving from the UK to board another flight “either directly or indirectly,” the DGCA said.
Cargo and special flights are exempt from the nine-day suspension for now.
India has had an air bubble deal with the UK since international travel resumed, under which four airlines currently operate 67 weekly flights: British Airways (29), Air India (23), Virgin Atlantic (8) and Vistara (7), between several Indian cities and London. Since all of these airlines have Covid-specific flexible booking policies, affected passengers will have the option of refunds or booking changes, the sources said.
“We are seeing mainly traffic to India on these flights, and not so much on those to the UK. The flyers are mostly expats and Indian students returning home for the holidays, ”said a senior official from an international airline.
The decision to suspend flights was made after Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan wrote to his aviation ministry counterpart PS Kharola on Monday about the new strain of coronavirus in the UK. “India has been experiencing a sustained decline in the number of new Covid cases for over 2.5 months, accompanied by a decline in the number of deaths. In this scenario, any interjection of (the new virus strain) through passengers with a history of air travel could represent a risk for the handling of the pandemic here, ”wrote the Secretary of Health.
Consequently, the joint monitoring group headed by the director general of health services recommended the suspension of flights to and from the UK, in addition to mandatory RT-PCR testing for those arriving from there.
Globally, the list of countries that cut off travel to and from the UK for varying periods expanded to more than 30 as speculation mounted that the mutant strain of the coronavirus was getting ‘out of control’ in Great Britain. Brittany. Saudi Arabia and Oman went one step further and suspended all international passenger flights for a week starting Monday. Kuwait He did it until January 1.
US officials noted that they were postponing a spoiler travel ban during the Christmas season, even as Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland and Hong Kong stopped traveling to and from the UK by air, road and sea, the agencies report.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was confident the existing 14-day quarantine rules for arrivals were sufficient to handle the threat.
The quick response from most countries thwarted trips around the world just as families were preparing to unite for Christmas. “Please help us go!” said a British traveler who was among the dozens of people stranded overnight at German airports.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was to hold a crisis meeting on the situation on Monday to discuss “in particular the constant flow of cargo to and from the UK,” a spokesman said.
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