West Bengal urges Centre not to schedule flights from 8 cities with high COVID-19 cases

West Bengal government on Tuesday urged Centre to t schedule any flight from high prevalence cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Pune to state for two weeks amid rise in number of COVID-19 cases.

In a letter to Civil Aviation Secretary P S Kharola, West Bengal Chief Secretary Rajiva Sinha requested him to stop movement of flights from eight cities to Kolkata or Bagdogra for two weeks starting July 6.

"West Bengal is also witnessing a steep rise in cases. A large number of cases has been reported from people coming (to) state from outside with infection. government of West Bengal has decided to stop or curtail movement of incoming flights and trains into state.

"Accordingly, I approach you with a request kindly t to schedule any flight to West Bengal from high prevalence places like Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Chennai, Indore, Ahmedab and Surat and stop movements of flights from se cities to Kolkata or Bagdogra for two weeks starting July 6," Sinha wrote in letter.

Sinha also requested aviation secretary to limit number of flights to Kolkata, Bagdogra and Andal from or cities to a frequency of once a week for each airline from July 6 to 31.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee h on Monday said that her government would urge Centre to limit domestic flights to state to just one day a week, as number of infections went up once people from outside started returning to West Bengal.

chief secretary me a request to Union government to temporarily stop trains to West Bengal from places having high incidence of COVID-19 cases so that spre of virus can be arrested, she h said.

West Bengal on Tuesday registered its highest single-day spike of 652 COVID-19 cases, which pushed total tally in state to 18,559, health department said.