Amid the high risk of Covid-19 surge, Australia on Tuesday set to consider a proposal to suspend flights from India, which is currently in the middle of a brutal second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Queensland state has made a request before the federal government to halt all flights from India due to the high risk of potential Covid-19 outbreaks from highly contagious virus variants in the country’s hotel quarantine system.
Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk was quoted saying, I sent a letter to the Prime Minister at the end of last week asking for the suspension of flights coming in from India … and I know that the federal government is considering it today, she said.
It is being reported that Australia’s national security committee meeting is scheduled to take place later in the day to consider suspending flights from India. The committee will also be unveiling the measures including sending medical supplies to help India, the Australian media reported. However, the prime minister’s office has not responded to requests seeking comments on the reports.
Earlier, Prime Minister Scott Morrison had announced a reduction in flights from high-risk Covid-19 nations, like India to contain the risk of more virulent strains of Covid-19 spreading across the world.
In view of the pandemic, Australia has closed its borders to non-citizens and permanent residents last March to prevent the entry of new coronavirus strain into the country. It had made it compulsory for all returning travellers to undergo a mandatory two-week hotel quarantine at their own expense.
With just under 29,700 Covid-19 cases and 910 deaths, Australia has recorded relatively low numbers of cases owing to the quarantine system.
Meanwhile, India in the last 24 hours reported more than 3,52,000 new Covid-19 cases, a global record for the rise in daily cases for the fifth straight day, since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Also, an all-time high death toll of more than 2,800 people were recorded over the last 24 hours.