The Health Ministry has called for an urgent meeting today of its joint monitoring group on coronavirus to discuss the new variant of coronavirus that is spreading quickly in the UK, causing a rise in cases and hospitalization. Many European nations have banned flights to and from Britain. India has taken no such decision on any flight ban from the UK but it is said that the matter will be given serious consideration.
Britain has warned this new strain of coronavirus was "out of control", and on Sunday has implemented rigid new stay-at-home lockdown.
The government sources said the joint monitoring group chaired by the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) will discuss the mutated variant of coronavirus reported from the UK.
The World Health Organisation's India representative Roderico H Ofrin, who is also a member of the monitoring group, is likely to be present in the meeting.
The Netherlands has suspended flights from the UK and Belgium said it would follow suit. Germany and Saudi Arabia to have stopped flights from Britain. Italy will join the ban to protect its citizens, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio wrote on Facebook, while Austria's Health Ministry told the APA news agency that it would also impose a flight ban, though specifications from these countries are yet to come out.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Sunday warned that the stringent measures that affect almost a third of England's population could stay in place until the virus vaccine is fully rolled out. "We acted very quickly and decisively.”
Mr Hancock said "stay at home" order, ban on family gatherings over Christmas and closure of non-essential shops was of utmost importance. "Unfortunately, the new strain was out of control. We have got to get it under control."
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Scientists across the world are troubled about this new mutant coronavirus as drugmakers are still in their early stages of rolling out vaccines.
Scientists first discovered the new variant - which they believe is 70 per cent more transmissible - in a patient in September. And Public Health England, a government agency, raised alarm on Friday when modelling revealed the full seriousness of the new strain.