India and COVID-19 an Update - IX

India's COVID-19 tally reached 23, 32,908 today, the recovery is at all time high with 70% and daily active cases are lower than cases in July. Active cases has shrinked to 28% whereas the fatality rate continue to seize around 2% only.?

COVID & TRAVEL - The international arrival process is made easy at the IGI Airport with contactless solution, and using a mandatory self-declaration form, flyers can now skip institutional quarantine. The online forms have been developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of External Affairs and Governments of various states and union territories. As per the MoCA guidelines, this facility will be available for all international arriving passengers from August 8, 2020.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought global travel to a halt, but nearly 3 in 4 frequent flyers (71%) are ready to return to travel either immediately or within the next 3-6 months, this according to a new survey from Collinson’s Priority Pass. The global survey also reveals that unpredictable factors such as quarantines and border controls represent travellers’ top concerns about returning to air travel ? 74% identify this as a worry, and accordingly, half of travellers are willing to pay for a Covid-19 test to help ease travel restrictions.

As part of India’s air bubble arrangement with Germany, the biggest German carrier ? Lufthansa, will now be flying into Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru from August 13. Lufthansa will resume services from Frankfurt to Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and from Munich to Delhi. Indian citizens will now be eligible to travel on Lufthansa flights to India from the US, Canada, and other countries worldwide. So, far the airline had only been operating outbound repatriation flights from the three Indian cities.

COVID & VACCINE - Russia on Tuesday declared itself the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine with President Vladimir Putin saying one of his daughters had been inoculated by this Vaccine developed by the Gamaleya research institute in coordination with the Russian defence ministry and other government bodies.