International flights news: With the number of coronavirus cases dropping in India and across the world, barring only a few countries like the UK and South Africa, the Ministry of Civil Aviation is set to decide on a date to resume regular international flights. Scheduled international air travel has already been restricted till January 31 in view of the new COVID-19 strain. As of now, the government has only permitted international flights under Vande Bharat Mission on certain air bubbles.
The Civil Aviation ministry along with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs will hold a meeting this week to decide on the “further opening up of international air travel of passengers”. A new set of guidelines will come into effect on February 1.
“For further opening up of international air travel of passengers, the Ministry of Civil Aviation may take a decision in consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs based on the assessment of the situation,” the government stated in its ‘Guidelines for Surveillance, Containment, and Caution”.
It also noted that the decision will take into consideration the “visible… steady decline in the number of active and new cases in the country” over the past four months.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Centre extended the flight ban on air travel between India and Britain to contain the spread of the new coronavirus strain. Regular flight services between the two countries had resumed briefly in December last year with limited capacity but were restricted again this month due to the new variant.
Over 30 countries have suspended flights with the UK recently. Notably, the UK variant of COVID-19 has already been reported by Denmark, Sweden, France, Spain, Netherlands, Australia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and Lebanon.
Mean-while, Covid-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours saw a dip from the previous day, with India recording 11,666 infections, pushing the country’s tally to 1,07,01,193, according to the Union Health Ministry update on Thursday. On Wednesday, the country had reported 12,689 fresh coronavirus cases.
Besides, 153 cases of the highly contagious UK coronavirus strain have been detected in India so far, said Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. The death toll climbed to 1,53,847, after 123 fatalities were reported in the last 24 hours. The fatality rate now stands at 1.44 percent.
Meanwhile, the trend of daily Covid-19 recoveries surpassing daily new cases continued on Thursday, with 14,301 patients being discharged in a span of 24 hours. This has now been observed for 21 consecutive days, with cumulative recoveries now at 1,03,73,606.
The number of active coronavirus cases in the country also dropped to 1,73,740, constituting 1.62 percent of the total infection count, the Health Ministry data showed. Active cases declined by 2,758 in the 24-hour period.
