The Indian government has issued a new standard operating procedure (SOP) for all passengers travelling by air from the UK, with 20 returnees from the country testing positive for Covid-19.
All the passengers had been on direct Air India flights from UK’s capital London to different Indian cities.
All passengers arriving in India from the UK will now have to reveal their travel history for the past 14
These passengers have been lodged in different quarantine centres.
The government also asked the passengers who have tested negative to be on home isolation as a precautionary measure.
The Indian government has adopted a slew of measures in view of a new variant coronavirus strain emerging in the UK that is supposed to be 70 per cent more transmissible among humans.
Among the 20 people who tested positive, six were on a flight from the UK to New Delhi on December 21 and two were on a flight to Kolkata on December 20.
Four passengers also arrived in a flight bound for Ahmadabad along with eight in another flight for Amritsar on Tuesday.
A report quoted NITI Aayog member VK Paul as saying that the new variant Covid-19 strain has not been detected in India so far.
The new virus variant has also been identified in countries like South Africa, Australia, Brazil and Denmark, with European countries now imposing travel restrictions to contain its further spread.
The centre has already suspended all flights from and to the UK from December 22 to December 31.