Amidst the second spike in COVID-19 cases, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri has made the ministry's stand clear on opening domestic airlines at 100 percent.
Speaking to media on Saturday Puri said that the ministry has no intention of curtailing flight services, adding that the government wanted to open services 100% from April 1. However, he added that the government can't open it 100% now due to the second spike of COVID-19.
"I've told the airport operators & airlines to put into a no-flyers list such passengers who are not wearing a mask and not maintaining social distancing norms," he added.
Domestic flights were halted in March 2020 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The operations resumed on May 25 and the government has been further reopening it.
At present, the services are at 80 percent.
India reported 62,258 coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, the highest single-day spike since October 2020, taking the total tally to 1,19,08,910 on Saturday.
India has shown a steep rise since March 16 (24,492), March 24 (47,262), and March 26 (59,118).
Cases have been increasing over the two weeks in leaps and bounds. According to the Health Ministry, Maharashtra and Punjab are turning out to be major contributor.
The central government is closely monitoring and actively engaging with states and union territories over the rising cases in the country.
With the death of 291 people in the last 24 hours, the toll touched 1,61,240 as the active caseload in the country mounted to 4,52,647.
With the discharge of 30,386 patients in a day, a total of 1,12,95,023 persons have been discharged so far.
As of date, 5.81 crore doses of corona vaccine have been administered in the country since the drive began on January 16 after approval for 'Covishield' and 'Covaxin'.
Now, those over 45 years of age will also get the Covid-19 vaccine from April 1, irrespective of the co-morbidities, the Central Government has announced.
