Centre to review flight resumption as new Covid-19 variant sparks alert

As concerns mounted over the spread of potentially more contagious coronavirus variant Omicron to many countries, the Centre on Sunday decided to review the resumption of international flights and issued a slew of directions to the states for ramping up testing-surveillance measures and health facilities.

Alert to the looming threat, states began to re-tighten curbs and urgently trace people who arrived from abroad especially ‘at risk’ nations in the last one month while a demand to not allow flights from the countries affected by the new variant was made by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.