Tehran, Iran
Iran announced on Saturday that it would suspend flights to and from India to prevent the Indian variant of the coronavirus from entering the already affected country.
“Today we are under the danger of a new virus, the Indian virus,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a meeting of the coronavirus task force in Tehran.
“We want to exercise serious vigilance and vigilance to get this virus into the country,” Rouhani said, calling the Indian virus “more dangerous” than other variants, adding the English variant that triggered Iran’s fourth wave of the virus. last few weeks.
Iran’s civil aviation organization announced in local media that all flights to and from India and Pakistan would be suspended starting Sunday.
The move comes as Health Minister Saeed Namaki came under pressure on Saturday to suspend air traffic between Tehran and New Delhi. He said the virus had undergone a “very damaging mutation” in India.
While India has been hit hard by a second wave of coronavirus, with record numbers of infections and deaths, Iran is also grappling with a fourth wave of the virus, with an alarming rise in new cases and deaths.
This week, coronavirus infections and deaths hit an all-time high in Iran, with the director of Tehran’s largest cemetery calling it catastrophic.