Delhi govt issues notice to 3rd int'l airline for flouting Covid norms

After Etihad and American Airlines, the Delhi government has issued a show-cause notice to Qatar Airways for failing to follow the mandatory Covid-19 guidelines issued by the Union Health Ministry in the wake of the spread of the Omicron variant.

According to a Delhi government notice, the Qatar Airways flight arrived in the national capital on Tuesday from the Hamad International Airport in Doha and it failed to identify 2 per cent travellers of the total people onboard who were supposed to undergo random RT-PCR testing upon their arrival at the Indira Gandhi International Airport.

"Non-compliance shall be viewed seriously, and it would be presumed that the Station Manager has nothing to say in the matter and action as deemed fit shall be initiated as per relevant provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005; Section 188 of IPC and other applicable laws," said the notice.

Earlier in the day, the state government issued a show-cause notice to the Etihad Airways for alleged non-compliance with the guidelines for international arrivals.

On December 4, it had issued a similar notice to the American Airlines on the same grounds.

The Central government has made it compulsory for airlines to test passengers arriving from "at-risk" countries, at the airport itself, who will only be allowed to leave after the results have come.

Of the total flight passengers, 2 per cent will be subjected to the test randomly.

The Centre has designated the UK, South Africa, Brazil, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand, Zimbabwe, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Israel as "at-risk" nations.

Meanwhile, two cases of Omicron variant was reported in Mumbai on Monday, pushing India's total tally of the new variant to 23.