Night curfew in Maharashtra: Check dates, timings, latest news updates amid new coronavirus variant spreading in Britain

Night curfew in Maharashtra: In a major development, the Maharashtra government on Monday declared a night curfew in municipal corporation areas of the state from December 22 to January 5 as a precautionary measure amid mounting fears about a new coronavirus variant spreading in Britain.

According to an official statement in Mumbai, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray held a meeting in the light of the situation in the UK.  It was decided at the meeting that a night curfew will be imposed in municipal corporation areas between 11 and 6 am from December 22 to January 5 as a precautionary measure, it said.

The statement said it has also been decided to put in institutional quarantine for 14 days those who arrive at the states airports from European and West Asian countries. Passengers coming to Maharashtra, the state worst-hit by COVID-19, from other countries will be home quarantined, it added.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aviation Ministry has said that all flights from the UK to India and vice versa will remain suspended from Wednesday to December 31. The action has been taken in view of the emergence of a mutated variant of the coronavirus there.

Moreover, the ministry said passengers coming from the UK through flights till Tuesday would be tested for COVID-19 on arrival at the airports "as a measure of abundant precaution".

A number of countries like Canada, Turkey, Belgium, Italy and Israel have banned flights from the UK as the British government warned that the potent new strain of the virus was "out of control" and imposed a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown from Sunday.

The Civil Aviation Ministry tweeted: "Considering the prevailing situation in UK, Govt. Of India has decided that all flights originating from UK to India to be suspended till 31st December 2020 (23.59 hours)."

This suspension will start after 11.59 PM of December 22 and consequently flights from India to the UK shall also stand temporarily suspended during above said period, it added.

"As a measure of abundant precaution, passengers arriving from UK in all transit flights (flights that have taken off or flights which are reaching India before 22nd Dec at 23.59 hrs) should be subject to mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival at the airports concerned," it mentioned.

The Union Health Ministry has called an urgent meeting of its Joint Monitoring Group on Monday to discuss the emergence of the new strain in the UK, which has led to a surge in the infection rate there.