'Extend ban on UK flights till January 31': Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal tells Centre

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday urged the Centre to extend the ban on flights from United Kingdom till the end of this month. Kejriwal said the danger of the spread of new mutant strain of corovavirus is very serious and UK is battling it, hence exposing Delhi to that risk is not required.

According to government officials, currently in Delhi the total number of confirmed patients with the new strain are 16, while reports of another 35 patients are still pending. Of the confirmed cases, 15 are admitted to the LNJP hospital and one patient has been shifted to a private hospital. 

“Centre has decided to lift the ban and start UK flights. In view of extremely serious Covid situation in UK, I would urge central government to extend the ban till January 31” said Kejriwal in a tweet. This is not the first time that the CM has made such an appeal, earlier in December, Delhi government appealed to immediately stop flights from UK, after the situation got out of control there. 

“With great difficulty, people have brought Covid situation in control. UK’s Covid situation is very serious. Now, why lift ban and expose people to risk?” Kejriwal questioned further. Delhi has seen huge surges in number of Coronavirus cases in the past which caused the government also a lot of embarrassment for being unable to control the number of cases.

Currently after a period of seven months the number of daily fresh cases is reducing compared to last month and the positivity rate of the infection has slowed down but government is not ready to lose its grip on the situation. 

The chief secretary of the Delhi has issued order to authorities to strictly follow the SOP issued by the Ministry of Aviation, for passengers coming in to the country from United Kingdom. The Centre partially lifted the ban and resumed India to UK? 

Flights from January 6, first flight from the UK will arrive in India on January 8.

486 fresh coronavirus cases and 19 deaths

On Thursday, 486 fresh coronavirus cases and 19 deaths were reported in Delhi, the number of tests conducted were 77,522 as per the latest health bulletin issued by the government.