Suspension of UK flights may be extended over new Covid-19 strain: Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri

Union Aviation Minister Hardeep S Puri on Tuesday said that the temporary suspension of India-UK flights may be slightly extended in view of the emergence of new Covid-19 variant.

Addressing a press conference, Puri said that the government is monitoring the new strain carefully.

"In the next day or two, we will find out if any additional steps need to be taken, or when we can start easing the current temporary suspension," he said.

India last week had banned all UK flights till January 31 to contain the spread of new coronavirus strain.

Meanwhile, the government on Tuesday said that COVID-19 vaccines will work against new variants.

Addressing a press conference, Principal Scientific Advisor K Vijay Raghavan said so far it has not been found that the new variant increases the severity of the disease.

"There is no evidence that current vaccines will fail to protect against COVID 19 variants reported from UK or SA. Most vaccines do target the Spike protein, in which there are changes in the variants but vaccines stimulate our immune system to produce a wide range of protective antibodies," he said.

Earlier on Tuesday, six UK returnees had tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus. The new variant was detected in the samples in NIMHANS, Bengaluru, in CCMB, Hyderabad and one in NIV, Pune, the Union Health Ministry said.