Suspend air travel from UK: Arvind Kejriwal urges Centre over new Covid-19 strain

While the Centre is yet to announce any travel ban or suspension of flights between India and UK, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan assured that the government is alert and there is no need for panic about the discovery of the new strain of coronavirus.

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged the central government to immediately ban all flights from the United Kingdom after a new strain of the coronavirus was detected and which has been spreading rapidly in the country. “New mutation of corona virus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central govt to ban all flights from UK immediately,“ Kejriwal said in a tweet.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal has urged the central government to suspend air travel from the UK after a new strain of Covid-19 was detected in the country. (HT Photo)

While the Centre is yet to announce any travel ban or suspension of flights between India and UK, Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan assured that the government is alert and there is no need for panic about the discovery of the new strain of coronavirus, news agency ANI reported. The health ministry’s Joint Monitoring Group (JMG) convened an urgent meeting on Monday to discuss the issue.

Travel ban from England is being implemented by many countries across the world and also being mulled upon by many others following the detection of the new mutation of the coronavirus. The BBC reported that European nations including Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium have started implementing a travel ban from the UK.

While British health officials and prime minister Boris Johnson have said that there is no sufficient evidence to suggest that the new strain is more deadly, the new variant has transmitted more rapidly. Following this rapid spread, a new layer of tier 4 restrictions have been announced in the UK and also leeway given for Christmas celebrations have been scrapped. Also, the officials said that there is no sufficient evidence to suggest that the new strain of the virus would impact the efficiency of vaccines being administered currently for Covid-19.

The Covid-19 vaccination program has been ongoing for almost two weeks now with close to 400 vaccination centres operating in the UK. The UK is currently reviewing Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine for which it has placed a pre-order of 7 million doses.

In addition to the European nations, other countries including Canada, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have also announced the suspension of air travel to the UK to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus variant in their countries.