Kejri urges PM to stop flights from countries hit by new Covid strain
‘We should do everything possible to prevent this new variant from entering India,’ says Delhi CM
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal has urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to stop all flights from countries reporting cases of the new coronavirus strain - B.1.1.529, or Omicron.
“I urge Honourable PM to stop flights from those countries which are affected by new variant. With great difficulty, our country has recovered from Corona. We should do everything possible to prevent this new variant from entering India,” Mr Kejriwal tweeted Saturday morning.
On Friday, Mr Kejriwal tweeted to say he had called for a meeting of medical and scientific experts on Monday in light of “the threat from (the) new Covid variant from African countries”. These experts, he said, would make a presentation to the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), he said, to suggest steps to protect the national capital from the
B.1.1.529 strain.
“In view of the threat from (the) new Covid-19 variant from African countries, we have requested experts to make a presentation to DDMA on Monday, and suggest what steps we should take. We will take all steps necessary to protect you and your family,” the chief minister tweeted.
The Prime Minister is chairing a meeting with top officials this morning to review the Covid situation. The Centre, last night, said scheduled international passenger flights to and from India would be allowed to return
to pre-Covid frequencies from December 15.
Delhi on Saturday recorded one more death due to Covid-19 and 27 fresh cases with a positivity rate of 0.05 per cent, according to health department data.With this, the death toll has climbed to 25,096 and the caseload stands at 14,40,834. Over 14.15 lakh patients have recovered from the viral disease, the health department bulletin said.
The death recorded on Saturday is Delhi’s fifth this month. Two deaths were recorded on November 12 and one each on November 14 and 15.
The city had reported four Covid-19 deaths in October and five in September.
On Friday, 23 cases were recorded in the national capital with a positivity rate of 0.04 per cent. On Thursday, 30 cases were recorded with a positivity rate of 0.05 per cent.
A total of 59,651 tests, including 49,102 RT-PCR ones, were conducted the previous day, the bulletin said.
The Delhi Police Cyber Cell has arrested nine members of a gang which allegedly duped around 1,000 people on the pretext of delivering medical oxygen cylinders during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, officials said on Saturday. The arrested members confessed to having duped around 1,000 people of approximately `1.5 crore, they said.
The police said the masterminds of the gang are postgraduates who conduct coaching classes, while the rest had links with other gangs of cheaters and provided their bank accounts and SIM cards for commission.