India extends suspension of flights to and from UK till January 7

New Delhi, Dec 30: Union civil aviation minister Hardeep Singh Puri has on Wednesday announced that the Centre has extended the temporary suspension of flights to and from the United Kingdom till January 7, 2021.

"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," Puri said on Twitter.

The development came after 20 people, who have returned from the UK to India, have tested positive for the new Covid-19 variant.

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.

India had suspended all flights from Britain last week until the end of the month as the new variant of the virus detected in the UK triggered widespread concern and travel restrictions across the world.

The Union health ministry said on Tuesday all international passengers who have arrived in India during the last 14 days - from December 9 to December 22 this year, if symptomatic and tested positive for the coronavirus disease will have to undergo genome sequencing.

All the infected people are now in isolation, the health ministry said in a statement, adding that their fellow travellers and close contacts are being traced and quarantined. Genome sequencing on other samples is currently going on.

From November 25 to midnight of December 23, 2020, about 33,000 passengers disembarked at various Indian airports from the UK.