Five flyers on London-Delhi flight test COVID-19 positive on arrival at Delhi

Five flyers of a London-Delhi flight tested positive for COVID-19 on arrival in the national capital last night. The flight was carrying 266 passengers & crew members. Samples of these persons have been sent to the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) for research and the travelers to the care centre, reported news agency ANI.

The development comes immediately after the Delhi government decided to test all flyers coming to Delhi from the United Kingdom, where a new COVID-19 strain has been detected. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has suspended all flights from the country till the end of this month.

Five out of 266 passengers & crew members of a flight which arrived at Delhi airport from London last night have tested positive for COVID-19. Their samples have been sent to NCDC for research & they have been sent to care centre: Nodal officer for COVID-19

— ANI (@ANI) December 22, 2020

Three flights are scheduled to land in Delhi today. Delhi’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said that government will also try to contact all the people who arrived in the city in the past 14 days.

Sisodia told The Indian Express that around 4,200 people landed in Delhi from the United Kingdom. “A list of all these travelers along with their contact numbers has been prepared. Each person will be contacted and tested by district-level teams. 400 more flyers will reach Delhi via flights from the UK,” he said.

Earlier on Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urged the Modi government to ban all the flights from the UK.