International flights to start from 18th as corona cases decrease in India: Center

New Delhi, Dt

Corona epidemic is currently under control in the country and less than 10,000 cases have been reported daily in the last few days. As a result, the central government has decided to start regular international flights soon. On the other hand, 10.5 new cases of corona were reported in the country on Friday and 4 more patients died. With this, the total number of cases of corona has gone up to more than 25 million while the death toll has crossed 4.5 lakh. However, there are 1.10 lakh active cases.

The country's civil aviation ministry said there had been a significant drop in corona cases in the country. The decision to resume international flights was taken after discussions with the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on the issue of resumption of commercial international flights. International flights will be launched in the country from 15th December 2021. However, the Home Ministry will compile three lists of countries for the operation of international flights. Flights will be operated on the basis of this list.

Sources said that regular international flights from India would be started for all the countries except the 15 banned countries. India's list of banned countries includes Britain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, South Africa, Brazil, China, Mauritius, Singapore, Bangladesh, Botswana, Zimbabwe and New Zealand. However, flights to these countries will continue under the current air-bubble flight system. Regular international flights to India have been suspended since March last year. However, special international flights have been operating since July 2020 under the Air Bubble system with 6 countries.

Meanwhile, the health ministry said on Friday that 10.5 new cases of corona had been reported in the country on Friday and four more had died. With this, the total number of cases of corona has been 4,6,6,21 while active cases have become 1,10,18. The total death toll has risen to 2,6,8. The number of new cases of corona in the country has been below 40,000 for 3 consecutive days. So far, 4,3,8,20 patients of Corona have recovered in the country.

Corona's condition is under control in several states of the country. However, on Friday, more than 115 people, including students at SDM Medical Science College and Hospital in Karnataka, became infected with the corona. As a result, after the test positive of 6 students in the two hostels of the institute, both the hostels were sealed.

In Rajasthan, on the other hand, the state government has said that educational institutions cannot force parents to send students to school for offline studies. Schools have to provide online study facility to the students.