Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia informed Parliament on Thursday that 11 countries – the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel – have been placed in the ‘at-risk’ category amid the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19. Briefing Lok Sabha on the Covid situation in the wake of the emergence of the newly detected Omicron variant, Scindia said there would be RT-PCR tests for those flying in from ‘at-risk’ nations. Scindia’s statement comes a day after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said the decision to resume scheduled international flights from December 15 has been put on hold. Last week, the Ministry had announced that international scheduled commercial flights would resume from December 15 after a 21-month ban, and that the decision had been taken in consultation with the ministries of Health, External Affairs and Home Affairs. “It has been our effort over the last six months to slowly increase flights, internationally as well. Omicron is a setback as all countries across the world need to be safe, therefore several countries have put different yardsticks. I think the yardstick put in place by our government with putting 11 countries marked as at-risk and testing them completely is the right way to go,” Scindia said. Scindia also informed Parliament that India currently has air bubble travel agreements with 31 countries. “At present we have air-bubble agreements with 31 countries and have a proposal with 10 other nations to start air-bubble agreements,” the minister said in response to a question.
