- Maharashtra today imposed an 11 PM to 6 AM night curfew till January 5 in Mumbai and other cities, and announced new quarantine rules for arrivals from the Europe and Middle East.
- Passengers from European or Middle East nations will be sent to 14-day institutional quarantine.
- Centre announced a ban on all flights from the UK till December 31.
“As of now, there is no need to get involved with these imaginary situations, imaginary panic. - The Centre is alert and there is no need to panic about it,” Vardhan said, speaking at the curtain-raiser for the 6th India International Science Festival-2020 (IISF 2020). “The government is fully conscious about everything. If you ask me, there is no reason to panic the way we are seeing in this press conference,”Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan Monday said.
- The ban will start Wednesday and all inbound passengers from the UK before then will be administered RT-PCR tests on arrival.
- Those who test positive will be sent to institutional quarantine and the rest will be asked to home-isolate for seven days.
- UK hit by new corona virus strain.
- The new variant, which UK scientists have named “VUI – 202012/01” includes a genetic mutation in the “spike” protein that the SARS-CoV-2 corona virus uses to infect human cells.
- Italy is another such country where the new strain of the virus has been found.
France also spoke about the possibility of the new strain of coronavirus in the country. - Australia too on Monday reported the mutant strain of coronavirus in two returnees from the UK.
- As of Monday, the United Kingdom stood shut off from the rest of Europe after several nations decided to close borders over fears of the new corona virus strain.
- Apart from France, Germany, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania, Malta, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Italy, Netherlands, India, Belgium, Greece, Russia, Hong Kong, Israel, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador and El Salvador have banned flights to and from the UK.