Archives for April 2021

KARACHI: Pakistan’s philanthropist organisation Edhi Welfare Trust on Friday offered to send 50 ambulances and support staff to India to help the country in combating the deadly COVID-19 pandemic. Faisal Edhi, who heads the trust, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said the organisation was closely following the COVID-19 situation in India.

Faisal, who offered to lead the team to India, said the Edhi trust sympathised with the Indian people in difficult times and they could send 50 ambulances and staff to help the people of India. He said the trust would provide fuel, food, and other necessary amenities that their team will require.

India added a record over 3.32 lakh new coronavirus cases in a single day taking the country’s tally to 1,62,63,695, while active cases crossed the 24-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The data updated at 8 am showed that the death toll increased to 1,86,920 with a record 2,263 new fatalities. The country recorded a single day rise of 3,32,730 new cases.

Meanwhile, Pakistan recorded 5,870 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, while 144 more people succumbed to the deadly virus, prompting Prime Minister Imran Khan to seek the help of the Army to support police in enforcing the SOPs for curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the country.

The total number of cases in Pakistan has reached 784,108 and the COVID-19 death toll touched 16,842. Another 4,652 patients were in critical condition.

WASHINGTON: The US is working closely with India, at both political and expert level, to identify ways to help address the current COVID-19 crisis in the country, the White House said on Friday.

“We’ve made vaccine cooperation a big priority, including with our Quad partners. India is one of our Quad partners, of course, in discussing vaccine creation and distribution for the future. We’ve also provided for a billion dollars to COVAX,” she said in response to a question.

“From the earliest stages of the pandemic, we’ve provided India with emergency relief supplies, medical consumables, pandemic training for Indian state and local health officials, and ventilators, which has been part of our effort over the course of time, including USD 1.4 billion in health assistance to India to help them prepare for pandemics in the future and deal with the current one we’re facing,” Psaki said.

Responding to a question, Psaki said there are ongoing discussions. “I don’t have anything more to preview, but we are in touch with them at a range of levels about how we can help them get through this period of time,” Psaki said.

At a separate news conference, Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, said that India is going through a very terrible situation right now.

“They’ve had yesterday the largest number of cases that has ever been reported by any country. They have a situation there where there are variants that have arisen. We have not yet fully characterised the variants and the relationship between the ability of the vaccines to protect but we’re assuming clearly, that they need vaccines,” he said.

“The CDC is helping out by consulting with them as they have in other countries in which there are situations and giving technical assistance. But it is a dire situation that we’re trying to help in any way we can we just have to see how things go. And obviously, they need to get their people vaccinated because that’s the only way we’re going to turn that around,” Dr Fauci said.

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said that the US has a longstanding commitment to India’s public health and is working closely with them in the COVID-19 response. “This is a global pandemic and India demonstrates the risk of what can happen if we don’t get the pandemic under control everywhere. It’s why we made the biggest investment in COVAX and we are committed to sharing vaccine supply as our confidence around our supply increases, we will explore those options,” Zients said.

India added a record over 3.32 lakh new coronavirus cases in a single day taking the country’s tally to 1,62,63,695, while active cases crossed the 24-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The death toll increased to 1,86,920 with a record 2,263 new fatalities. The country recorded a single day rise of 3,32,730 new cases, the data updated at 8 am showed.

DUBAI: Kuwait on Saturday suspended all direct commercial flights coming from India until further notice due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country.

Kuwait’s directorate general of civil aviation said that it had suspended all direct commercial flights coming from India, effective April 24.

All passengers arriving from India either directly or via another country will be banned from entering unless they have spent at least 14 days out of India, it said in a statement on Twitter.

Kuwaiti citizens, their first degree relatives and their domestic workers will be allowed to enter the country.

Operations of freight flights will continue, it said.

Over one million Indian community members live in Kuwait, the largest expatriate community in the country, according to the Indian Embassy in Kuwait.

Earlier, the UK, the UAE and Canada announced ban flights from India amid the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country.

A record single-day rise of 3,46,786 coronavirus cases pushed India’s tally of infection to 1,66,10,481, while active cases crossed the 25-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Saturday.

Meanwhile, the UAE on Friday updated its travel ban for India, saying that all incoming flights on national and foreign carriers from the country will be suspended, while transportation of passengers from the Gulf country to India will be allowed.

The UAE on Thursday banned travel from India for 10 days from Sunday due to the worsening COVID-19 situation in the country.

The UAE’s General Authority of Civil Aviation and the National Emergency, Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) announced an update on regulations with the clarification that entry from India will be suspended for all incoming flights on national and foreign carriers.

According to a statement released, this will also apply to those carrying transit passengers, except for transit flights coming to the UAE and heading onward to India.

“This decision includes the entry of travellers who were in India in the last 14 days prior to coming to the UAE,” the statement said.

The statement, however, said that the flights between the two countries will continue to operate allowing the transportation of passengers from the UAE to India.

“It will also allow the transfer of exempted groups from India to the UAE with the application of the aforementioned precautionary measures.

These groups include UAE citizens, diplomatic missions appointed by the two countries, official delegations and those holding golden residency,” it said.

The exemptions will apply provided they undertake preventive measures that include quarantine for 10 days and a PCR test at the airport, as well as on the fourth and eighth days following the entry into the country.

The required PCR test period has also been reduced from 72 hours to 48 hours prior to travel from accredited laboratories that issue test results carrying a QR code.

“The authority also confirmed that it is required for those coming from India through other countries to stay in those countries for at least 14 days before being allowed to enter the country, starting from 23:59 on Saturday, April 24, 2021,” said the statement.

These regulations will apply for a period of 10 days, which can be extended, while cargo flights continue to operate between the two countries.

The authority called upon all travellers affected by the decision to follow up with the relevant airlines to change or reschedule their flights and to ensure their safe return to their final destinations without delay.

LONDON: Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday said the UK was looking at ways to “help and support” India, as it copes with a devastating second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is believed this support could be in the form of ventilators or therapeutics.

The comment by Johnson, who was forced to cancel a planned visit to India this weekend amid a surge in infections, came as the “red list” COVID-19 travel restrictions came in force for India on Friday, which bans entry for travellers from India and requires British and Irish nationals and long-term UK residents returning home to undergo a compulsory 10-day hotel quarantine.

The ban comes in as Public Health England (PHE) confirmed 55 more cases of the so-called double mutant Indian variant, B.1.617, from all coronavirus cases tracked until April 14, taking the total for the Variant Under Investigation (VUI) in the UK to 132.

Experts are still studying whether any of the mutations mean the variant can be transmitted more easily, is more deadly or can evade the effectiveness of vaccines or natural immunity.

“At this point they are designated Variant Under Investigation (VUI) with a year, month, and number. Following a risk assessment with the relevant expert committee, they may be designated Variant of Concern (VOC),” PHE said of the Indian variant, designated as VUI-21Apr-01.

The last flight from India before the red list categorisation, which includes 40 countries considered high-risk zones for the spread of new variants of the deadly virus, landed at Heathrow Airport in London from Delhi on Thursday evening.

Earlier, Heathrow had confirmed that it turned down requests for at least eight additional flights that were seeking landing rights ahead of Friday’s 4am cut-off to avoid long queues and crowds building up at the airport.

Families and students who were able to make it back in time must now self-isolate at their own homes or student accommodation registered on passenger locator forms and take follow up coronavirus tests for the National Health Service (NHS) to continue tracking their results.

Anyone arriving from India from Friday must now budget for a 10-day quarantine period at a government-approved hotel quarantine facility and take two follow up PCR tests, adding approximately 2,000 pounds per person to the travel costs.

Indian students are the worst-hit by this additional requirement as they were preparing to either resume their on-campus studies at UK universities or start a new term next month.

“We have received confirmation from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office that those with vignettes for valid routes that confer residency in the UK can enter the UK, even if they have no Biometric Residence Permits when they land,” reads an advisory issued by the National Indian Students and Alumni Union UK (NISAU-UK), a representative group for Indian students in the UK.

It has been fielding frantic calls and messages ever since India’s red list classification was announced in the House of Commons earlier in the week.

The group is working on steps to raise hardship requests and student discounts for the compulsory quarantine.

Meanwhile, some UK universities are also reaching out to the government to offer assistance in the quarantine process on campus to help support some of these overseas students.

Universities UK International (UUKi), a representative group for the UK’s leading universities, has said that given the government may have difficulty providing capacity, they should look at where universities have accommodation that could meet the standard of the hotel quarantine system.