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

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.