Two passengers from UK test COVID-19 positive at Kolkata airport

Two passengers, who arrived from the UK, tested positive for COVID-19 at Kolkata airport on Sunday, the airport officials said on Tuesday.

The news came amid rising concerns over the discovery of a new strain of coronavirus in the UK.

Meanwhile, five out of 266 passengers and crew members of a London to Delhi flight have tested positive for coronavirus, an official said."Five out of 266 passengers and crew members of a flight which arrived at Delhi airport from London last night have tested positive for COVID-19. Their samples have been sent to NCDC for research and they have been sent to the care centre," said a Nodal officer for COVID-19.

India will temporarily suspend all flight operations between India and the UK from 11.59 pm today till December 31, 2020.

"There are reports from the United Kingdom that new virus strain is spreading at an alarming rate. Therefore, we have decided from 23.59 hours of December 22 that all flights to and from the UK will be temporarily suspended till 31 December 2020," Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said yesterday.

On December 20, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had informed the public that a new variant of the COVID-19 virus has been found in the UK.

"Given the early evidence we have on this new variant of the virus, and the potential risk it poses, it is with a heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot continue with Christmas as planned," he had tweeted.

( With inputs from ANI )