India said on Friday that it has decided to lift the temporary ban on flights from the UK and will resume operations from January 8 on a limited basis amid concerns over the spread of the highly infectious new strain of Covid-19, which was first identified in the UK.
Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said today: “Operations until January 23 will be restricted to 15 flights per week each for carriers from two countries to and from Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Hyderabad only. “.
He also mentioned that the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will issue a detailed guide shortly.
India on December 21 ordered a temporary suspension on flights from the United Kingdom following the emergence of a highly infectious new strain of coronavirus in Britain. The suspension of flights took effect from December 22 at midnight and will continue until December 31, the government added.
Furthermore, the ministry also added that as a precautionary measure, passengers arriving from the UK on all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights arriving in India before December 22 at 11:59 p.m.) must be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test. upon arrival at the corresponding airports.
However, the government subsequently extended the temporary suspension of flights to the UK until January 7.
“The decision has been made to extend the temporary suspension of flights to and from the UK until January 7, 2021,” Puri said on the social media platform Twitter.
Meanwhile, India reported four more cases of a Covid-19 strain today, bringing the total count to 29.
“The 29 people are in physical isolation in health facilities,” said an official.
Of the 29, the mutated UK strain was detected in samples from eight people at the National Center for Disease Control (NCDC) in New Delhi, two at the Institute for Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, one at the National Institute. of Biomedical Genomics (NIBMG), Kalyani (near Kolkata), five at the National Institute of Virology in Pune, three at the Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) in Hyderabad, and 10 were sequenced at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience Hospital (NIMHANS) Bangalore.
The government is conducting a comprehensive contact tracing exercise for fellow travelers, family members, and others.
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