India suspends all flights connecting to the UK in the wake of mutant coronavirus

According to a report by PTI, India has suspended all passenger flights connecting to the UK from Wednesday till December 31 in the wake of the emergence of a mutated variant of the coronavirus there, joining several other countries that have imposed a similar flight ban. Moreover, passengers coming from the UK through flights till Tuesday midnight would be tested for COVID-19 on arrival at airports "as a measure of abundant precaution", the Civil Aviation Ministry said on Monday.

A number of countries like Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Israel have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter that the passengers who are found COVID-19-positive would be sent for institutional quarantine set up by states or union territories (UTs). "Those found negative should be advised to isolate at home for seven days and will be medically monitored by states/UTs," Puri added.

This suspension will start after 11.59 PM of December 22 and, consequently, flights from India to the UK shall also stand temporarily suspended during the period, a Civil Aviation Ministry tweet added. "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," it mentioned.

While all scheduled international passenger flights have been suspended in India since March 23 due to the coronavirus pandemic, special flights have been operating under the Vande Bharat mission since May and under air bubble arrangements since July. India has formed air bubble arrangements with more than 22 countries, including the UK. Under an air bubble agreement between two nations, airlines of both countries can operate special flights between their territories with certain restrictions.