In a major development, the Ministry of Civil Aviation on Monday decided to temporarily suspend all flights originating from the UK to India till 11:59 pm, 31st December.
The ministry in statement said,"Considering the prevailing situation in the UK, Indian govt has decided that all flights originating from the UK to India shall be temporarily suspended till 11:59 pm, 31st December. This suspension to start w.e.f. 11.59 pm, 22nd December."
Further the statement read,"As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 11.59 pm) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at airports"
Multiple countries have halted all international flights amid fears over a highly infectious new mutant strain of the novel coronavirus which has been discovered in Britain.
Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, France, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Canada and Israel are among the nations thathave placed restrictions on travel with the UK.
The decision on travel ban has been taken over fears of a fast-spreading variant of COVID-19.
On December 19, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson had announced that the newly identified strain of the virus may be up to 70 per cent more transmissible.
According to British Health Secretary Matt Hancock, the new variant was "out of control".