India extends ban on flights from UK till Jan 7

NEW DELHI: India on Wednesday decided to extend its ban on flights from UK till January 7 next year, following the detection of cases of the new COVID-19 strain in the country.

The development came after 20 UK returnees tested positive for new COVID-19 variant, which is suspected to be 20% more infectious.

Taking to Twitter, Hardeep Singh Puri, civil aviation minister said, “Decision has been taken to extend the temporary suspension of flights to & from the UK till 7 January 2021. Thereafter strictly regulated resumption will take place for which details will be announced shortly.”

A total of 20 new people in India now have the new coronavirus strain. This includes the 8 new cases recorded on Tuesday, as per health ministry.

Reportedly, the samples that tested positive for the new strain were 8 from NCDC, Delhi; 7 from NIMHANS, Bengaluru; 2 from CCMB, Hyderabad; 1 from NIBG, Kolkata; 1 from NIV, Pune and 1 from IGIB, Delhi.

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 All these people have been kept in single room isolation in designated health care facilities and their close contacts have also been put under quarantine.

Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others.

Nearly 33,000 passengers had disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK between November 25 to December 23. All these passengers are being tracked and were subjected by states/UTs to RT-PCR tests.

 "Comprehensive contact tracing has been initiated for co-travellers, family contacts and others. Genome sequencing on other specimens is going on. The situation is under careful watch and regular advice is being provided to the states for enhanced surveillance, containment, testing and dispatch of samples to INSACOG labs," the ministry had said.

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