The contacts of these international travellers must also be closely tracked and tested as per guidelines issued by the Union health ministry, he said.Īccording to officials, the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG) is closely tracking the new variant and its presence has not been detected in the country yet. The health secretary went on to say, that it is therefore imperative that all international travellers travelling from and transiting through these countries are subjected to “rigorous screening and testing'. “This variant is reported to have a significantly high number of mutations, and thus, has serious public health implications for the country, in view of recently relaxed visa restrictions and opening up of international travel,' he added. The Indian government has imposed a 21-day lockdown from Tuesday midnight to prevent the spread of coronavirus, severely restricting the moments of people and transport.“It has now been reported by National Centra for Disease Control (NCDC) that multiple cases of a Covid-19 variant B.1.1529 have been reported in Botswana, South Africa and Honk Kong,' said Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan in his letter to states. It also advised them to adhere to the lockdown norms during their stay in the country and said it hopes it will be able to arrange for a safe passage for them with the Indian government once the flight arrangements have been made. The US on Wednesday said it was in contact with the Indian government to help find accommodation for American citizens stranded in the country because of the Covid-19 lockdown till the time it can arrange flights to evacuate them. The exact number of stranded Americans could not be ascertained, but it is believed to be in hundreds. Over 2000 French nationals are currently staying in India. The United States and France are also in talks with the Indian government to evacuate their citizens from the country. Officials said two more special flights to Frankfurt (Germany) and Austria were scheduled from the Delhi airport on Thursday to evacuate 750 people. Over 150 Japanese nationals were flown out on a special flight that flew in from Tokyo, while four other flights flew out 500 people to Germany, 120 to Ukraine and 240 to two Baltic nations. The evacuation of Israelis comes close on the heels of similar missions to fly out over a thousand foreign nationals including the Japanese and the Germans on five special flights from Delhi. The flight carrying the Israelis is to leave from New Delhi’s IGI Airport for Tel Aviv, however, it will not carry any passengers back on the return flight, said another news agency. Indian govt has helped us a lot, I want to thank them Israel took drastic measures to fight Coronavirus, the situation there is under control,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI. In another flight tomorrow, 200 more Israelis to be evacuated. Israeli ambassador thanked India for assisting in Israel’s efforts to evacuate citizens from the country.(ANI Photo) A special Air India flight was to fly 317 Israeli back home on Thursday followed by another 200 on Friday, said ambassador Ron Malka. Israel thanked the Indian government for the evacuation of over 500 Israeli nationals from India, in two trips, one each on Thursday and Friday.

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