Covid-19 outbreak: No foreign flight in India for a week, work-from-home for private sector

The government barred all commercial international aircraft from landing in India from March 22 and instructed states to enforce work-from-home protocol for all private sector employees, except essential services, amid a raft of measures aimed at staving off the coronavirus epidemic that has claimed four lives in India.

In a statement by the press information bureau, the government said no commercial flights will be allowed to land until March 29. All children under 10 have been asked to stay at home and citizens above 65 – except public representatives, medical professionals and government servants -- were instructed to not venture outside.

"States are being requested to enforce work from home for private sector employees except for those working in emergency/essential services," the statement read.

The government also suspended all concessional travel on trains and flights, except for students, patients and disabled people. All group B and C central government employees have been asked to attend office on alternate weeks, with staggered timings.

The statement came hours before Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation at 8pm on Thursday.

India is currently grappling with stage 2 of the coronavirus outbreak, with 169 cases and four deaths. The Indian Council of Medical Research has ruled out community transmission – where the origin of the infection is not known -- as of Thursday morning.

(Inputs and image from hindustantimes.com)