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India Suspends Flights From UK Amid New Strain Of Coronavirus

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6 years ago

December 26, 2020

India suspends flights from UK because of concerns about the spread of a new variant of coronavirus.

As the second wave of Coronavirus lingers, India has temporarily stopped flights from Britain into the country. This is after the emergence of a new and more infectious strain of Coronavirus across the UK.

“Considering the prevailing situation in UK, the government of India has decided that all flights originating from UK to India be suspended. The suspension will be effective till 31st December 2020,” the aviation ministry said in a tweet.

In a “measure of abundant precaution”, it added, passengers arriving from Britain on transit flights would be subject to a mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival.

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Britain is home to a huge Indian diaspora. Hence, several flights per day take hundreds of people between London and New Delhi and London and Mumbai.

India has recorded more than 10 million coronavirus infections. This is the second-highest in the world after the United States, with 147,000 deaths.

However, its rate of infections has come down in recent weeks from almost 100,000 per-day in September to around 25,000.

This is despite restrictions being eased considerably and economic activity returning almost to pre-pandemic levels.

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More than a dozen European nations have already banned UK arrivals because of concerns about the spread of a new variant of coronavirus.

Health authorities in Britain’s former colony Hong Kong also said UK flights would be banned from Tuesday.

US officials, however, signalled they were holding off on a similar move for now, while Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he was confident existing 14-day quarantine rules for arrivals were sufficient to handle the threat.