July 13, 2025 12:16 am (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
'Canada is not your playground': Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun's threat to Kapil Sharma | 'Don't jump into conclusions, wait for final report of Air India crash probe': Civil Aviation Minister | IIM Calcutta student alleges rape at boys' hostel amid uproar over Kasba incident | Preliminary investigation report shows both engines of crashed Air India flight shut down seconds after take-off | Pardon by Yemeni national's family is only hope for Indian nurse Nimisha Priya: Activist | S Jaishankar likely to visit China this weekend for the first time in 5 years: Report | 'Show me one photo of Indian damage': Ajit Doval slams foreign media over Op Sindoor reportage | Tennis player Radhika Yadav was shot four times by her father: Autopsy report | Pakistani actress Humaira Asghar, whose decomposed body was recovered from Karachi flat, died 9 months ago: Report | Radhika Yadav's death: Father spent 2.5 crore on tennis
Covid-19 | West Bengal
Image Credit: Paul Hamilton via wikipedia.org

COVID-19: West Bengal govt suspends UK flights to Kolkata from Jan 3 amid Omicron scare

| @indiablooms | Dec 31, 2021, at 01:19 am

Kolkata/IBNS: Amid rapidly rising Covid-19 cases, the West Bengal government has decided to suspend all direct flights from the United Kingdom to Kolkata from January 3, officials said on Thursday.

Bengal Home Secretary B.P. Gopalika has written to Union Ministry of Civil Aviation Secretary Rajiv Bansal that the state will temporarily suspend all direct flights from the UK to Kolkata from January 3, 2022, until further order, "in view of the rising number of Omicron cases globally as well within the country".

"From January 3, 2022, all passengers coming from other non-at-risk countries by international flights to West Bengal will have to mandatorily undergo a test on arrival at their cost," B.P. Gopalika wrote in the letter.

"The airlines will randomly select 10 percent of the passengers for RT-PCR test and the balance 90 percent shall undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at the arrival airport. Those found positive in the RAT test will have to further undergo RT-PCR tests as may be required by the health authorities," the letter read.

West Bengal on Thursday reported a massive spike in its Covid-19 tally as the state health department had registered 2,128 fresh infections and 12 fatalities in the past 24 hours, while the Covid positivity rate, which was 2.84 percent on Wednesday, has climbed to 5.47 percent.

The state capital Kolkata alone recorded 1,090 new cases of Covid-19 and four fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The government said there are 8,776 active Covid cases in the state while 1,067 patients were discharged in the last 24 hours, though the recovery rate has further dropped to 98.25 percent (98.32 pc on Wed).

West Bengal tested 38,898 samples in the past 24 hours in 155 testing facilities across the state.

Till date, 16 Omicron cases have been detected in Bengal while at least four of those 16 cases had no recent foreign travel history.

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.
Close menu