India will be extending the suspension of flights from the United Kingdom till January 7 amid concerns over the new coronavirus strain that spreads 70% faster and has also been found in India.
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Wednesday, “Decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension of flights to and from the UK till 7 January 2021. Thereafter, a strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly.”
Decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension of flights to & from the UK till 7 January 2021.
— Hardeep Singh Puri (@HardeepSPuri) December 30, 2020
Thereafter strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly.
On Tuesday, India reported the first six cases of Covid-19 caused by the mutant virus strain. As of Wednesday morning, a total of 20 cases have been reported in the country.
The government has directed genome sequencing of samples from all passengers who arrived in India from December 9 to 22 and tested positive for Covid-19 or were symptomatic as it ramped up the surveillance and containment strategy.
The union ministry had directed that about 33,000 passengers who disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK from November 25 to December 23 midnight be subjected to RT-PCR tests and samples of those found positive be sent for genome sequencing to check for the presence of the variant coronavirus.
After being first detected in the UK, the virus has now been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Lebanon and Singapore so far.
