71% Indians Want Flights From China To Be Suspended: Survey

New Delhi: Not only Congress MP Manish Tewari, but 71 per cent of citizens also feel that with cases of COVID surging in China, India should shut down flights from the country.

LocalCircles conducted a pan-India survey which received over 10,000 responses from citizens residing in 301 districts of India. 62% of respondents were men while 38% of respondents were women. 42% of respondents were from tier 1, 30% from tier 2 and 28% respondents were from tier 3, 4 and rural districts.

The survey asked citizens, “COVID led by new variants like BF.7 is rapidly rising in China in regard to both infections spreading and mortalities. Should India shut all flights coming from China directly and prohibit entry (mandatory quarantine) of any passenger who has been in China in the last 2 weeks?”

In response, 71% of citizens said “Yes, it should do both i.e. suspend flights from China as well as prohibit entry (mandatory quarantine) for anyone who has been in China in the last 14 days.”

There were 16% of respondents who said, “It should only suspend flights from China and let passengers who have been in China during the last 14 days come in via other countries with a negative COVID test report”. 5% of respondents said, “It should let flights and passengers from China come in without any restrictions but have them upload a COVID negative test report” and “8% said It should let flights and passengers from China come in without any restrictions.” This question received 10,469 responses.

Serum Institute of India (SII) chief Adar Poonawalla has assured India that there is no need to panic. He said, “The news of rising COVID cases coming out of China is concerning, we need not panic given our excellent vaccination coverage and track record. We must continue to trust and follow the guidelines set by the Government of India and MoHFW.”