COVID-19 cases continue to be on the rise, especially in the UK. Recently, there has been a call to stop flights to and from Britain. Most countries are stopping flight services amidst new Coronavirus strains. This restriction mainly focuses on Britain due to the rapid surge of new covid cases. The British Government has decided to impose stricter lockdown measures in light of this unusual surge.
Due to this unfortunate breakout in the UK, India is also taking strict measures to prevent a rise of COVID-19 cases. They plan to do so by restricting flights to and from Britain from December 23- December 31. In addition to the ban, any citizen from the UK coming to India before December 22 midnight, will be tested for Covid. The test will commence on the arrival of the citizen as “a measure of abundant precaution”.
Further, any UK citizen traveling to India, must not board other flights outside the UK. This will be strictly followed during the suspension period.
What is happening to Britain to call these bans?
In the previous week, a new variant of the coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 seems to be the reason behind the surge in covid-19 cases in England. The variant is now known as VUI (Variant Under Investigation) 202012/01, or the B.1.1.7 lineage.
Due to the brilliance and advancement of genomic sequencing, this variant was even allowed to be identity. This is the only plausible reasoning behind the rapid spread of cases in England. WHO is already aware of the new variant by UK authorities.
According to the PHE (Public Health England), over 1,108 cases exist with this variant predominantly in South and East England. These are the numbers as of December 13th. Further investigation will go on to find out more about the new variant.
As for now, India is enforcing strict measures to prevent a rise in COVID-19 spread.
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