13 UK returnees registered in Meghalaya, three returnees tested negative

Shillong: Meghalaya's Director of Health Services, Dr. Aman Warr informed on December 27 that 13 UK returnees have been detected in the state so far.

Dr Warr had said that three of the returnees have been tested negative while the result of the remaining nine people will be done on December 28.

All the UK returnees have been kept under strict home quarantine.

A majority of them hails from the capital of Meghalaya, Shillong.

Dr Warr had assured the netizens that "There is nothing to panic since all returnees had returned before the outbreak of the new strain of the virus."

Other health officials have also confirmed that all necessary precautions have been taken by the officials of Meghalaya.

Earlier the Meghalaya Government had prohibited the entry of tourists from Britain in the state as concerns and apprehensions were on the rise following the emergence of a new variant of covid-19 in the United Kingdom.

The order was issued by the Home (Political) Department of the Meghalaya Government and it had come into immediate effects and is said to be in place until further orders.

The Chief Secretary MS Rao had said, "Following the emergence of a new and highly infectious strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom, all tourists from the United Kingdom are prohibited from visiting the State of Meghalaya with immediate effect and until further orders."

The new variant of coronavirus was found to be growing rapidly in some parts of England. As many as 60 different local authorities had recorded the infection of the new variant.

The government of India had decided to ban flights coming from the UK to break the chain of spreading the mutated variant. All flights originating from the UK to India are suspended from December 22 to December 31.

Consequently, flights from India to the UK are also suspended during this period.

India and UK were connected by various airlines including Air India, Vistara, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic connecting London to Indian airports like Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Ahmedabad and Amritsar.

While regular scheduled international flights are still not allowed by authorities, however, India and UK have entered an air bubble arrangement.

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