Iran’s emergency evacuation flight from India waiting for approval
The Iranian civil aviation authority (CAO) says it is waiting for a permission from the Iranian health ministry to hold an emergency flight to India to evacuate Iranian nationals from the country amid a serious outbreak of the coronavirus.
CAO spokesman Mohammad Hassan Zibakhsh said on Saturday that the Iranian foreign ministry has been pressing for the flight to be carried out immediately to evacuate Iranian students and other nationals who have been stranded in India amid the pandemic.
“For this emergency flight to take place the health ministry should issue a certificate to determine the mandatory protocols that should be observed (onboard),” said Zibakhsh.
The official said that Iranian ambassador to India had demanded the flight to take place as soon as possible.
Iran banned all flights to and from India and Pakistan on April 25 after authorities warned about the possibility that and Indian variant of the coroanvirus could spread into Iran from eastern borders.
All border crossings to Pakistan have remained closed to passenger travels since April 28.
That comes as health ministry authorities have detected a handful of infections with the Indian variant in recent weeks.
While going through a fourth wave of coroanvirus outbreak, Iran fears the situation might worsen with the spread of the Indian virus as the variant is believed to be more infectious than other types of the disease.
Iranian authorities have imposed some of toughest restrictions on travel and gathering in the country to prevent a fresh surge in coroanvirus cases and deaths.
The government announced earlier this week that travelling by car between all cities across Iran would be banned for four days covering holidays at the end of the holy month of Ramadan starting May 11.
Updating the daily toll from the coronavirus, the Iranian health ministry on Saturday put the number of deaths and confirmed cases at 283 and 13,576, respectively.
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