While the government of India is set to resume all international flights from today, March 27 in view of the declining Covid-19 cases not only in India but other countries as well.
Even though as per the government rules on has to adhere to the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare guidelines for international travel, there are many citizens in the country that do not agree with this decision.
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The concern of many comes with the fact that the coronavirus cases are increasing in Europe and other Asian countries with an imminent danger of a rise in cases of BA 2.2 sub-lineage of Omicron in India. In fact, the BA 2.2 variant has already reached India, with the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium (INSACOG), which conducts genome sequencing of the coronavirus, reporting over 10 such cases in Maharashtra, Puducherry and Ladakh.
LocalCircles, a research think tank conducted a survey regarding the resumption of international flights in India where over 9,000 people participated. As per the research, 69% of citizens are against restarting of a full schedule of commercial international flights.
People were asked, “Many countries (South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Germany, France, Netherlands) continue experiencing a strong surge in COVID cases. India is currently scheduled to restart its commercial international flights from Mar 27. What approach should it take given the latest international COVID situation?”
In response, only 27% of citizens said ‘Start commercial international flights from all countries as planned’. 19% of citizens said ‘Postpone restarting of all commercial international flights for now’ while 4% did not have an opinion.
On an aggregate basis, 69% of citizens are against restarting full schedule commercial international flights from March 27, 2022. The majority of them want that the Government to only restart commercial international flights from countries that have the test positivity rate (TPR) in low single digits i.e., less than 5%, preferably 2%.
In conclusion, the survey indicates that in light of the fast spread of COVID cases led by the BA 2.2 sub-lineage of Omicron in several countries in Asia and Europe, 69% of citizens are against India restarting full schedule commercial international flights. Though this percentage has marginally declined from 73% from the previous survey conducted during the 2nd week of March, however, people stay firm in their opposition of restarting international commercial flights from March 27th, from countries experiencing COVID surge.
