NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (NNN-PTI) – Chief Minister of the Indian capital city, Arvind Kejriwal, today urged the federal government, to immediately ban international flights from countries affected by the new Omicron variant of COVID-19.
He questioned the Indian government, over its delay in this regard, in a post on social media, writing: “Many countries have stopped incoming flights from Omicron-affected countries. Why are we delaying? Even in the first wave, we had delayed stopping foreign flights.”
“Most of the foreign flights come to Delhi, Delhi is the most affected,” he noted and asked Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, to put the ban in place immediately.
Yesterday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said, the new variant poses a very high global risk and could have severe consequences, where there are surges in cases with the new variant.
Kejriwal also shared a local news report that, a returnee from South Africa tested positive for COVID-19 in the northern Chandigarh city, and two contacts of the case were found infected, with their samples to be sent for genome sequencing.
Over the weekend Kejriwal also wrote a letter to Modi, urging him to “immediately stop flights” from the Omicron-affected countries.
“Any delay in this regard may prove harmful if any affected person enters India,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kejriwal is scheduled to be at a meeting today, to review preparedness of hospitals in the capital New Delhi, over threat of the Omicron variant.
Indian media reports said, the Maharashtra state government has also decided to request the federal government, to suspend flights from areas where the new variant has been reported.
