Delhi airport officials said the delay was due to procedural system for UK passengers. (Representational)
Passengers arriving from the United Kingdom had to wait for more than eight hours at the Delhi airport today to get their COVID-19 test reports.
As per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), passengers from the UK are being permitted to exit the airport only after all the Covid reports are released.
Airport officials said that the delay was due to the procedural system for UK passengers.
"As per the SOPs set by the administration, the sample of the Covid collection in a mass level of the UK passengers but allow them to exit the airport only when the reports of all passengers are out," an airport official told news agency ANI.
India suspended flight operations from December 22 till December 31 this year to and from the UK after a new coronavirus strain was found there. Following the government's directive to conduct mandatory RT-PCR testing for all passengers and crew arriving from the UK before the ban, Delhi authorities have been asked to conduct COVID-19 tests at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
Around 500 passengers from the UK who landed at the Delhi airport last night were stuck at the airport for hours.
"We are at the airport since last night and now it's (been) over eight hours... we are waiting for permission to go outside the airport, social distancing is clearly being violated at the airport," a passenger said.
India is among over 30 countries that have announced temporary UK travel ban. The mutant strain was first reported in Britain in September and has led to a surge in Covid cases there.