New Delhi: The Government of India is likely to review its earlier decision to allow scheduled international commercial flights to resume from December 14, in light of the new 'Omicron' variant of the Covid-19 virus spreading, a senior official from the Indian government said.
According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs' Twitter account, a meeting was held on Sunday to take stock of the worldwide situation regarding the new variant. "Decision on effective date of resumption of scheduled commercial international passengers service, to be reviewed, as per evolving global scenario," a tweet said.
In addition, the government will also be strengthening genomic surveillance for variants and Airport Health Officials (APHOs) and Port Health Officials (PHOs) will be sensitised for strict supervision of testing protocol at airports/ ports.
"Government to review Standard Operating Procedure on testing & surveillance of incoming international passengers, especially for those countries identified ‘at risk’ category," another tweet said.
The meeting was held with various experts including Dr. V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, Dr. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to Prime Minister, & senior officers from Health, Civil Aviation and other Ministries.