International flights to remain suspended in India till April 30: DGCA

New Delhi: Director-General of Civil Aviation on Tuesday in a circular said that suspension of international flights has been further extended till April 30. However, international scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis.

"In partial modification of circular dated 26-6-2020, the competent authority has further extended the validity of circular issued on the above subject regarding Scheduled International commercial passenger services to/from India till 2359 hrs IST of April 30. This restriction shall not apply to international all-cargo operations and flights specifically approved by DGCA," a circular stated.

"However, International Scheduled flights may be allowed on selected routes by the competent authority on case to case basis," it added.

Amid the recent spike in COVID-19 cases in the country, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) today issued new guidelines for effective control of the disease. The guidelines will be effective from April 1 to 30.

"The main focus of the guidelines is to consolidate the substantial gains achieved in containing the spread of COVID-19, which was visible in the sustained decline in the number of active cases, continuously for about five months," MHA said.

"Keeping in view a fresh surge in COVID-19 cases, which is being witnessed in some parts of the country, the guidelines mandate the state/UT governments to strictly enforce the Test-Track-Treat protocol in all parts of the country, ensure observance of COVID-19 appropriate behaviour by everyone and to scale up the vaccination drive, to cover all the target groups," the MHA added.

The ministry also emphasized that in order to ensure that the resumption of activities is successful and to fully overcome the pandemic, there is a need to strictly follow the prescribed containment strategy, and strictly observe the guidelines/SOPs issued by MHA and health ministry and other ministries/departments of the central government and state/UT governments.

A new protocol has been added which is the Test-Track-Treat protocol.