COVID New Strain: Govt Extends Restrictions on Flights Between India and UK Till February 14

The flight services between the two countries had resumed earlier this months, but with restrictions.  The government had earlier resumed the services with limited capacity - 30 flights are operating including 15 each by Indian and UK carriers.

The Modi government on Wednesday extended the restrictions on flights between India and United Kingdom to control the spread of new coronavirus strain. The flight services between the two countries had resumed earlier this months, but with restrictions.  The government had earlier resumed the services with limited capacity – 30 flights are operating including 15 each by Indian and UK carriers.

Civil aviation minister Hardeep Puri had tweeted the frequency of flights between India and the UK saying the government will keep reviewing it. The flights from India to the UK started on January 6, while operations from the UK to India began on January 8.

Earlier, a preprint review by bioRxiv, a free online archive and distribution service for unpublished preprints in the life sciences, had said Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech, has the ability to neutralise the UK variant of the coronavirus,

The archive is operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a not-for-profit research and educational institutionin New York.

Bharat Biotech performed the plaque reduction neutralisation test (PRNT50) using sera collected from the 26 recipients of Covaxin and tested them against the UK variant and heterologous strain, the report said.

“A comparable neutralisation activity of sera of the vaccinated individuals showed against UK-variant and the heterologous strain with similar efficiency, dispel the uncertainty of possible neutralisation escape,” the preprint review published in bioRxivs website said.

Covaxin is India’s totally indigenous COVID-19 vaccine developed in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology. It is developed and manufactured in Bharat Biotech’s BSL-3 (Bio-Safety Level 3) bio-containment facility, one of its kind in the world.