The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Thursday announced the suspension of all flights from India, including transit passengers, as coronavirus cases in the South Asian country spiked to global records, according to an AFP report.
Some 300 flights a week were operating between the UAE and India before the ban was announced, according to local media, making the air corridor one of the busiest in the world.
Passengers who have transited through India in the last 14 days are also not permitted to board from any other point to the UAE, reports added.
"The decision to suspend flights came after studying and evaluating the epidemiological situation in the friendly Republic of India," the General Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement carried on state news agency WAM.
The GCAA said those coming from India through other countries must stay in that third destination for at least 14 days.
UAE nationals and passengers in private jets are exempt from that requirement.
Cargo flights between the two countries will continue after the ban, which comes into effect at 11.59pm on April 24 for a period of 10 days "that can be extended".
"This comes in response to the proactive precautionary and preventive health measures issued by all authorities concerned in the country to limit the spread" of the pandemic, WAM cited authorities as saying.
The UAE is home to some 3.3mn Indians who make up a third of the population -- most of them in Dubai, one of the seven emirates that make up the federation.
India announced yesterday that nearly 315,000 new cases of Covid-19 had been recorded during the past 24 hours, in the highest daily toll in the world.