The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Sunday announced an extension of the ban on scheduled international commercial passenger flights to and from India till September 30.
The ban was previously extended till the end of August.
In a circular on Sunday, the civil aviation regulator said: “The competent authority has further extended the validity of circular issued on the subject cited above regarding Scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of September 30, 2021.”
This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights approved by the DGCA. However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the regulator on a case-to-case basis, the order stated.
Scheduled international passenger flights were suspended in India in March last year because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
While domestic flights resumed in May 2020 and were gradually increased, international travel has remained suspended with the continuous extension of the ban.
India reported 45,083 new Covid cases in the past 24 hours, slightly lower than yesterday’s 46,759, taking the total infections to over 3.26 crore.
The country has reported 460 deaths and 35,840 recoveries in the last 24 hours; active caseload 3,68,558. The nation’s recovery rate currently stands at 97.53%.
The recovery rate has been high over the past many months. It is currently at 97.53 per cent. The daily positivity rate is at 2.57 per cent – less than 3 per cent for 34 straight days in a sign of relief. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Covid positivity rate below 5 per cent to be within the safe zone.
In more woes for Kerala, the state has added close to 1.5 lakh new Covid-19 cases in the last five days alone, with the daily count in the state remaining over 30,000 for the fourth straight day
Meanwhile, Over 73.8 lakh vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours. The total doses administered in the country have exceeded 63.09 crores so far, the health ministry said.