NEW DELHI, Dec 21: The Government is fully alert and there is no need to panic, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said today amid concerns over the emergence of a new Coronavirus strain in the UK.
The Union Health Ministry has called an urgent meeting of its Joint Monitoring Group today to discuss the new strain, which has led to a surge in the infection rate in the UK.
“The Government is fully alert about everything. If you ask me, there is no reason to panic the way we are seeing in this press conference,” the Minister said.
He said the Government had done everything that was important to handle the COVID-19 situation in the last one year. The scientific community, he added, had very ably risen to the occasion, continuously striving and contributing to whatever was needed to combat and understand any aspect of COVID-19.
Meanwile, all flights connecting the UK and India will remain suspended from Wednesday till December 31, the Civil Aviation Ministry said today in view of the emergence of a mutated variant of the Coronavirus there.
Moreover, it said 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”.
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 those passengers who are found COVID-positive would be sent for institutional quarantine set up by the States or Union Territories (UTs).
“Those found negative should be advised to isolate at home for 7 days and will be medically monitored by the States/UTs,” Puri added.
Till date, the rules stated that if an international passenger had a COVID-negative certificate from a test done 72 hours prior to the journey, he or she need not undergo COVID-19 test again on arrival at the Indian airport. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel
