India suspends all flights to UK over new COVID strain

Muscat: A new strain of the coronavirus which has been identified in the UK and is about 70 percent more infectious has caused the Indian government to suspend all flights to and from India and Britain.

“Considering the prevailing situation in the UK, the Government of India has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India will be suspended till 31st December 2020 (23.59 hours),” said the country’s Ministry of Civil Aviation in a statement.

The suspension of flights will begin just before midnight on 22 December, 2020.

“Consequently flights from India to the UK shall stand temporarily suspended during the above said period,” added the ministry. “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.”