Students walk to attend classes as their school reopened after a gap of nearly one year due to the coronavirus pandemic in Srinagar on March 2, 2022. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP)
NEW DELHI / HANOI / SINGAPORE / NEW DELHI / SEOUL / WELLINGTON – India has decided to resume regular international commercial flight operations from March 27 after two years of COVID-19 curbs, the federal civil aviation ministry said Tuesday.
"After having recognized the increased vaccination coverage across the globe and in consultation with the stakeholders, the government of India has decided to resume scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India from March 27, 2022, i.e. start of Summer Schedule 2022," the ministry in a statement said.
According to the ministry, the ongoing suspension of international flight operations will stay until March 26.
"The suspension of scheduled commercial international passenger services to/from India, thus, stands extended only up to 23:59 hours (local time) on March 26, 2022, and air bubble arrangements shall accordingly be extended to this extent only," the ministry said.
The regular international commercial flight services in India were first suspended on March 23, 2020, soon after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
The ministry said international operations shall be subject to strict adherence to guidelines issued by the federal health ministry for international travel.
Domestic flights resumed operations in India on May 25, 2020, after nearly two months of suspension.
India's COVID-19 tally rose to 42,975,883 on Wednesday, as 4,575 new cases were registered during the past 24 hours across the country, showed the federal health ministry's latest data.
Besides, 145 more deaths were recorded since Tuesday morning, taking the death toll to 515,355.
New Zealand
New Zealand reported 22,454 new community cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Among the new community infections, 8,529 were in the largest city Auckland. Twelve new cases of COVID-19 were detected at the New Zealand border, said the ministry.
Currently there are 742 COVID-19 patients in New Zealand hospitals, including 19 people in intensive care units or high dependency units, according to the ministry.
New Zealand has reported 285,906 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, including 202,141 cases identified in the past 10 days and not yet classified as recovered.
New Zealand is currently at the highest Red settings under its COVID-19 Protection Framework. At Red settings, face masks become mandatory in many indoor environments and gatherings are limited to 100 people.
A notice warning people not to gather in groups larger than five persons as part of restrictions to hald the spread of the coronavirus is displayed at Raffles Place financial business district in Singapore on Jan 4, 2022. (ROSLAN RAHMAN / AFP)
Singapore
Singapore reported 22,201 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, bringing the total tally to 868,542.
Of the new cases, 2,750 cases were detected through PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and 19,451 through ART (antigen rapid test) tests, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Health.
South Korea
South Korea reported a record daily high of 342,446 new COVID-19 cases as of midnight Tuesday compared to 24 hours ago, raising the total number of infections to 5,212,118, the health authorities said Wednesday.
The daily caseload was sharply up from 202,720 in the prior day, surpassing 300,000 for the first time here, according to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).
Vietnam
Daily COVID-19 tally in Vietnam rose to an all-time high of 162,435 cases on Tuesday, up 15,077 cases from the previous record on Monday, according to its Ministry of Health.
The new infections, logged in 62 localities nationwide, included 162,415 domestically transmitted and 20 imported.
Vietnamese capital Hanoi remained the epidemic hotspot with 32,650 cases on Tuesday, also its new daily high, followed by central Nghe An province with 15,292 cases, and northern Bac Ninh province with 10,731 cases.