Narendra Modi to chair meet on COVID-19 situation with top government officials at 10.30 am

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting with top government officials on the COVID-19 situation and vaccination at 10:30 am today.

The meeting comes amid rising global concern about the B.1.1.529 strain of the coronavirus, which the World Health Organisation named as Omicron on Friday and termed as a ‘variant of concern’.

According to WHO, this variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning.

In a bid to contain this new COVID-19 threat, countries across the world have rushed to impose travel bans.

Meanwhile, India announced that scheduled international passenger flights will resume from 15 December after 20 months of coronavirus-induced suspension.

As per the government’s decision, airlines will be allowed to operate 50 percent of their pre-COVID scheduled passenger flights between India and South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana from 15 December.

On Thursday, the government had asked all states and union territories to conduct rigorous screening and testing of all international travellers coming from or transiting through South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

With inputs from agencies

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