Mamata urges Centre to suspend flights from 'at-risk' nations

Sagar Island: Mentioning that most of the Omicron cases were traced among people flown in from the United Kingdom, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Centre to restrict operation of flights from the countries badly hit by the Covid's new variant.

The Bengal government has decided to temporarily suspend all direct flights from the United Kingdom to Kolkata from January 3, 2022.

In the same breath she has clearly stated that the decision on imposing restrictions would be taken only after a proper assessment of the situation as the economy has started rolling after a long period of time and it has to be imposed in such a way that it does not get affected.

"We have noticed that most of the cases of Omicron were found among people who came from the UK and it cannot be ruled out that operation of international flights is the main source of Omicron in the country. The Centre should take steps in regards to putting restrictions on flight operations from high-risk countries," Banerjee said before leaving Sagar Island where she went for a three-day trip to take stock of the preparations for Gangasagar Mela.

The state Home Secretary BP Gopalika wrote to the Secretary of Ministry of Civil Aviation Rajiv Bansal stating that the Bengal has decided to temporarily suspend all direct flights from United Kingdom to Kolkata from January 3 and all passengers coming from other non at-risk countries by international flights to Bengal have to mandatorily undergo a test on arrival at their own cost. The airlines will randomly select 10 percent of passengers for RT-PCR test and the balance 90 percent shall undergo Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) at the time of arrival.

While speaking about the state's steps to check the spike in Covid cases, Banerjee said: "Our first concern is the safety and security of people. But there is no point imposing restrictions everywhere. We have to identify the areas where most cases have been reported and steps would be taken accordingly. The decision in this regard would be taken soon. In the past two years business has gone down to zero. Economy should also not get affected".

She further said "We have not said that the schools and colleges will be closed. We had yesterday stated that the situation would be reviewed to assess whether there is a need to keep the schools and colleges closed again. We will also assess if Omicron is spreading among kids".

All steps are being taken to assess the infrastructural requirement as treatment of other patients were also allowed at many Covid hospitals as the number of affected persons had gone down in the past six to seven months, she said.

When asked about Covid restrictions at Ganga Sagar Mela, she said: "You do not worry about Ganga Sagar. This is not mine, but a festival attended by people from all across the country. How can I stop someone coming from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar? I cannot stop anyone as Ganga Sagar belongs to everyone in the country".

Reiterating that Omicron is not fatal but spreads fast, the Chief Minister said that MLA Tapas Roy tested Covid positive and he was at a meeting.

The state on Thursday registered 2,128 cases, with Kolkata alone accounting for 1,090 of them. The state has also reported 16 cases of Omicron so far.