Kuwait City
Kuwait and Iran restricted flights and passengers from India until further notice after the south Asian giant recorded its highest daily Covid death toll and some hospitals ran out of oxygen.
The region’s busiest international air hub, the United Arab Emirates, had already announced on Thursday that it would suspend flights to and from India from Sunday.
“In view of the health situation, it has been decided to suspend direct commercial air links with India until further notice,” the Kuwaiti government tweeted late Friday.
It said Kuwait residents would only be allowed to return to the emirate via third countries if they stopped over for at least 14 days.
The Iranian authorities said on Saturday that they were suspending air arrivals from India and Pakistan.“
Flights to and from the two countries of India and Pakistan will be banned” from midnight, aviation authority spokesman Mohammad Hassan Zibakhsh said, quoted by state news agency IRNA.
“There are no scheduled flights between Iran and India. Nevertheless, accepting connecting passengers from the noted countries will be banned.”
As the clock ticked down to the shutdown of the air corridor between India and the UAE — one of the world’s busiest — fares soared as Indians who could afford it scrambled to escape the Covid surge.—AFP
