South Asia

Covid-19: India bans all UK flights till December 31

Update: 06:58, 21 December 2020

India has banned all flights from the United Kingdom after the discovery of a new and more infectious coronavirus strain spreading in the country. The air travel ban will stay till 23:59 pm on December 31. The suspension of all UK flights will begin from 23:59 pm on Tuesday. The decision to suspend all UK flights was taken considering the "prevailing situation on the UK"_ the government said.

In a tweet_ the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) said_ "Considering the prevailing situation in UK. The Government of India has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India to be suspended till 31st December 2020 (23.59 hours)."

All the passengers of the flights that are arriving in India from the UK till Tuesday will have to be tested on their arrival to detect the new strain of coronavirus.

"As a measure of abundant precaution_ passengers arriving from the UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned_" the government said.

The decision has been taken amid concerns over a new strain of the coronavirus that is feared to be more contagious_ which forced at least five countries on Sunday to ban travel from the United Kingdom_ with several others considering similar restrictions.

The new coronavirus variant has prompted the UK government to impose a tier 4 lockdown across the country and tighten restrictions across England_ especially during the festival season.

India s announcement on Monday came after a meeting called by the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) chaired by the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) to assess the threat from the new variant. The government may review the suspension period after December.

India has been operating international flights through established transport bubbles with 23 countries_ including the UK thus far_ and the Vande Bharat Mission since May while regular operations remain suspended since March.