Coronavirus Scare: No international flight to land in India from March 22 for 1 week

The government today said it will not allow any scheduled international commercial passenger flights to land in India beginning March 22 for a period of a week.

“No commercial aircraft shall land in India after midnight falling between March 21 and March 22 till midnight falling between March 28 and March 29,” Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said at a press conference.

Besides, Rubina Ali, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said that India had evacuated 201 citizens from Iran yesterday. The information came a day after the Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan told Parliament that 276 Indians abroad had tested positive for Covid-19, including 255 in Iran.”These are temporary measures being announced to contain the spread of Covid-19 virus and will be reviewed later.”

The move is the latest among a slew of steps the government has announced to curb passengers coming from abroad in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously, it announced the suspension of all visas for passengers coming from Covid-19 countries, including all of EU, the UK and several Gulf countries.

Besides disallowing landing of international flights, the government also announced other steps.

Among other steps, the government said it had cancelled all concessional railways and civil aviation tickets, except for students, patients and divyang categories.

It also asked all central government group B and C employees to attend offices on alternate weeks and work as per staggered timings.