The Union government on Monday suspended all flights originating from the UK to India till 11:59 pm on December 31 over the emergence of a new mutation of the coronavirus. This suspension to start with effect from 11.59 pm on December 22, the Ministry of Civil Aviation said in a statement. Flyers arriving in India on transit flights via the United Kingdom before December 22 will be subject to a mandatory RT-PCR COVID-19 test on arrival at Indian airports.

"As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all  transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned," the Ministry said in a tweet.

This comes after 27 other countries, including France and Germany, banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday. Some countries like the Netherlands have also banned ferry service to and from the UK., reported Al Jazeerah.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had demanded that the Union government ban all flights from the United Kingdom immediately in view of the emergence of a mutated variant of the coronavirus there. The call from the Delhi CM came after the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced stricter restrictions across London and south-east England from Sunday.

"New mutation of COVID-19 virus has emerged in UK, which is a super-spreader. I urge central govt to ban all flights from UK immediately," Kejriwal tweeted.

The Union Health Ministry in India had called an urgent meeting of its Joint Monitoring Group on Monday to discuss the emergence of the new strain in the UK, which has led to a surge in the infection rate there.

Meanwhile, addressing the media on Monday, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the government is fully alert and there is no need to panic and that the government had done everything that was important to handle the COVID-19 situation in the last one year.