India on Monday announced that it will temporarily ban flights from UK from tomorrow midnight till December 31 after the emergence of a new and highly infectious strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom.
“Considering the prevailing situation in the UK, Indian govt has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India shall be temporarily suspended till 11:59 pm, 31st December. This suspension to start w.e.f. 11.59 pm, 22nd December,” the Ministry of Civil Aviation said.
“As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 11.59 pm) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at airports,” it added.
Earlier today, assuring the country not to worry over the new strain of coronavirus reported in the United Kingdom, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan while addressing the reporters at India Science Festival, Minister said, “At this time, I would say, don’t get hassled with imaginary situations, imaginary talks and imaginary panic. The government is fully alert. In the last one year, as you all have seen, we took all necessary measures to ensure the safety of people. If you ask me, there’s no reason to panic so much.”
“New mutation of coronavirus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central government to ban all flights from UK immediately,” he said.
Many European countries have banned flights to and from Britain after the reports of the spread of the virus.
Britain has warned this new strain of coronavirus was “out of control”, and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.
