5 passengers and crew on a flight from London to Delhi have tested positive for coronavirus, an official said Tuesday.
The news came Amid growing concerns over the discovery of a new strain of coronavirus in the UK,
“”Five out of 266 passengers and crew members of a flight which arrived at Delhi airport from London last night have tested positive for COVID-19. Their samples have been sent to NCDC for research and they have been sent to the care centre,” he said a COVID-19 nodal officer.
This is because UK to India air travel was suspended until December 31st due to the spread of a new strain of coronavirus in London and England.
Passengers arriving in Punjab from the UK waited in a long line at Amritsar Airport on Tuesday to be tested for COVID-19 for the new virus coronavirus strain. Numerous people were waiting outside Amritsar airport to meet their relatives who were arriving from a flight from London.
“Authorities are asking passengers to undergo COVID-19 tests, even if they were tested just before boarding the flight. They should be allowed to go home,” said a relative of one of the passengers.
Subdivision Magistrate Deepak Bhatia (Ajnala) said people arriving from London will have to go through an RT-PCR test which can take hours which will require passengers to stay at the airport.
In addition, numerous passengers who came to Mumbai from the UK on Tuesday morning were sent to institutional quarantine after the new strain of the virus.
On December 20, Prime Minister Boris Johnson informed the public that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus had been found in the UK.
“Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, and the potential risk it poses, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned,” he tweeted.
(With Inputs ANI)
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