73% Indian Citizens Against Resumption Of International Flights: Survey

Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases across Europe and Asia, several citizens in India are against the resumption of international flights from March 27, according to a survey by LocalCircles. The survey received responses from 12,618 citizens residing in 294 Indian districts.

Though India is resuming international flights, several countries such as Hong Kong, China, Vietnam, Germany, France, and the Netherlands are witnessing a dramatic surge in BA 2.2 sublineage of BA 2 variant of Omicron cases. At least 73 per cent of the survey respondents are against restarting international flights beginning March 27. Meanwhile, 25 per cent of the respondents agreed with the government’s decision of resuming flights, whereas 41 per cent of the respondents said that international flights should commence from those countries which have less than 2 per cent of TPR. TPR or test positivity rate is a threshold set by WHO for the daily positivity rates for epidemics. If the TPR crosses 5 per cent, it is considered that the epidemic is out of control. 

In the survey 18 per cent of the respondents suggested postponing the international flights, while 2 per cent did not have an opinion. Notably, 44 per cent of the respondents were from tier I cities, 35 per cent from tier II and 21 per cent of respondents were from tier III, tier IV, and rural districts, respectively. 

The international flights were suspended two years ago on March 23, 2020, amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and have been on hiatus since then.