Foresee suspension of UK flights to be additional prolonged :Hardeep Singh Puri

Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday mentioned that he foresees a “short extension” of the suspension of flights from the United Kingdom to include the unfold of the brand new variant of coronavirus that was first detected in that nation.

This comes a day after six individuals who had not too long ago returned to India from the UK had been discovered constructive for the brand new mutant pressure of the coronavirus.

“I foresee a short extension on this temporary suspension. I do not see the extension to be long or indefinite,” Puri mentioned whereas addressing media at an annual press convention on Civil Aviation.

The authorities has imposed a ban on flights coming to India from the UK. All flights originating from the UK to India are suspended until December 31, 2020, with impact from December 22. Puri defined that the Ministry is monitoring developments in different international locations too and can take additional selections accordingly.

“We had imposed temporary suspensions when we had eight to nine flights daily from the UK. The passengers who came in from the time of the announcement to the next day were subjected to compulsory quarantine at the point of arrival. Even those who tested negative were required to go in mandatory quarantine. We went one step further and we did contact tracing and genome sequencing of passengers from the UK who have come to India since November 25,” he mentioned.