The whole of 2020 has been dominated by one common theme for everybody in the world - COVID-19! This Novel Corona Virus outbreak turned into a Pandemic and is still ravaging almost everywhere. After months of having no tool to battle this deadly Virus, it is only in recent days that researchers and scientists have identified potent vaccines to immunise people against COVID-19. However, the vaccinations have just started and would definitely take some time to reach all corners of the world. All this happening on one side, we now have some more shocking news our way. Reports state of a new strain of the Corona Virus, which is spreading rapidly across the United Kingdom. Following this, the Union Health Ministry called a meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) yesterday, to discuss about this new mutated form of the Virus.

Following this, earlier today, the Ministry of Civil Aviation announced that it would be suspending all flights from the UK to India, till December 31st! This suspension will come into effect from 23:59 hours on December 22! There are also reports that all passengers arriving in India, till the suspension comes into effect, would be thoroughly screened before being allowed to leave the airport. India follows a number of other countries like Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark and Netherlands, who have also temporarily suspended all their flights to and from the UK. All passengers coming in from the UK will be mandatorily subject to the RT-PCR COVID-19 test.

Those who return a positive on the COVID test, would be sent for institutional quarantine set up by their respective states or Union Territories. Those passengers who return negative tests, will be asked to home quarantine for 7 days and they will be medically monitored by their respective states and Union Territories. The Director General of Civil Aviation has also issued a stern notification to all airlines to abide by the 9-day suspension rule and not allow any passenger travelling from the UK to board their flights from other countries also. Meanwhile, all cargo airlines and other approved flights between the UK and India would be exempt from this suspension and fly as usual, as the two countries have an air bubble agreement for their flights.