West Bengal temporarily suspends flights from UK to Kolkata from Jan 3

Amid fast-spreading Omicron variant, the recently discovered strain of novel coronavirus, the West Bengal government on Thursday announced that it will temporarily suspend direct flights from UK to Kolkata from January 3, 2022.

The announcement comes moments after chief minister Mamata Banerjee expressed worry over the rising Omicron cases across the world.  

In a public gathering, Mamata said, "Most Omicron cases are being detected among people coming on flights from the UK. The Centre must decide on imposing restrictions on flights from countries where Omicron cases are high. We will see what the Ministry of Civil Aviation will do."

The fresh order also stated that all passengers coming from countries not categorised as "at-risk" nations by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) will have to mandatorily undergo a Covid-19 test on the arrival at their own cost.

The airlines will randomly select 10% of the passengers for an RT-PCR test and the balance 90% shall undergo RAT (Rapid-Antigen Test) at the arrival airport. "Those found positive at the RAT test will have to undergo RT-PCR tests as may be required by health authorities," the order further stated.

Further, all passengers have to mandatorily pre-book test before boarding to reduce wasting time on arrival, which the airlines must ensure prior to allowing the boarding.

Accordingly, the airport authorities may be asked to augment the holding capacity of the aerial Lounge on the international side and also increase the number of testing counters so as to reduce the waiting time for the passengers at the airport, the report further added.

"Further, the airlines may be requested to evenly space oat the flight arrivals in NSCBI, Kolkata in consultation with the Airport Director and the state nodal officer so as to reduce waiting time," it further added.

The COVID-19 situation in West Bengal deteriorated as the state on Wednesday registered more than 1,000 daily cases after a gap of 177 days, a health bulletin said.

Kolkata registered 540 of the 1,089 new cases as the state's tally rose to 16,32,906, it said.

The death toll went up to 19,745 after 12 more patients succumbed to the disease, it added.

Meanwhile, India recorded the highest single-day rise of Omicron infections with 180 fresh cases, taking the total tally of such infections in the country to 961, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated today.

The 961 cases have been detected across 22 states and UTs so far, and 320 people have recovered or migrated.

The daily rise in COVID-19 cases crossed the 13,000-mark after around 49 days, taking the total tally to 3,48,22,040, while the active cases increased to 82,402, according to the data updated at 8 am.  The number of deaths has climbed to 4,80,860 with 268 fresh fatalities, the data stated.