Domestic flights in India to resume from Monday

ALL 50 US STATES START TO REOPEN; CASES CROSS 5M MARK

Domestic air travel will resume in India on Monday after a two-month shutdown imposed to stop the spread of coronavirus, the aviation minister said yesterday, a further easing of lockdown restrictions.

The government halted all domestic flights — which ferried 144 million passengers as well as cargo across the country last year — on March 25, days after suspending international flights. “All airports and air carriers are being informed to be ready for operations from 25th May,” Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said.

Biggest daily jump in cases

The announcement comes as the country of 1.3 billion people yesterday reported its biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections, with 5,611 new cases recorded in 24 hours. It took the total to 106,750, with Mumbai the worst-hit city.

More than 3,300 people have died and Mumbai accounts for almost a quarter of fatalities.

Not meeting guidelines

In the US , as of yesterday, all 50 states had begun to reopen to some degree, two months after the outbreak thrust the country into lockdown. But vast variations remain in how states are deciding to open up, with some forging far ahead of others. Many began to reopen despite not meeting White House guidelines for progress against

the virus, and newly reported cases have been increasing in some states, including Texas and Minnesota, that are moving to ease restrictions.

WHO worried over rising new cases in poor nations

In Geneva, World Health Organisation expressed concern about the rising number of new cases in poor countries. The global health body said 106,000 new cases of infections had been recorded in the past 24 hours, the most in a single day since the outbreak began. “We still have a long way to go in this pandemic,” WHO directorgeneral Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, as the worldwide cases crossed the tragic milestone of 5 million. As of late last night the number of cases rose to 5,053,048 and deaths to 327,880. There were 2,004,984 recoveries.

The United States yesterday imposed sanctions on Iran’s interior minister, accusing him of having a role in serious human rights abuse, including giving orders that led to violence against peaceful protesters, the US Treasury Department said.

The Treasury said in a statement that Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli gave orders authorising the Law Enforcement Forces (LEF) to use lethal force in response to protests in November, leading to the killing of protesters, including at least 23 minors.

The Treasury’s action yesterday also blacklisted seven senior officials of the LEF and a provincial commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The LEF Cooperative Foundation

— which the Treasury said is controlled by the LEF and which is active in Iran’s energy, construction, services, technology and banking industries — was also blacklisted, as were its director and members of the board of trustees. The organisation’s name in Iran is Bonyad Taavon NAJA.

Yesterday’s action freezes any US-held assets of those blacklisted and generally bars Americans from dealing with them.