After much hue and cry, the Australian authorities have finally ended the controversial ban on flights from India. Initially, it was planned that the plane would carry 150 passengers but half of those were allowed to board the plane.
72 of the booked passengers had to remain away from their hometown as 48 of them were contracted to Covid-19 infection and others were deemed close contacts. As per the airport authorities, those who have tested positive for the virus or were deemed close contacts have to remain in India until tested negative.
The plane touched the land in Darwin on Saturday morning after picking up the passengers from India’s capital New Delhi.
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After landing, the arrivals would be quarantined at Outback quarantine facility Howard Springs for a fortnight.
Earlier, the Australian government made the journey between India and Australia temporarily illegal and the one who would travel from India during the ban could face fines and would send behind the bars for about five years. This ban ended at midnight on Friday.
It is expected that 5000 Australians are in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases have being detected every day, and the number of people losing their lives has been soaring.
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Since March 2020, Australians have been banned from traveling overseas. Australia has no widespread community transmission of Covid-19 but has seen several outbreaks.
Today, India has reported 3,26,098 fresh corona positive cases, took the caseload tally at 2,43,72,243. The global tally today reached 162.5 million.