Six passengers who entered the country on Air India’s London-Delhi flight have tested positive for Covid-19 on arrival, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

This comes at a time when a new strain of the coronavirus has led to millions entering a stringent new stay-at-home lockdown in the UK from Sunday, with non-essential shops and businesses now closed.

The flight landed around 11:30 pm on Monday.

“Five passengers were found Covid-positive at the Delhi airport. One passenger, who took a connecting flight to Chennai, was tested there and found positive,” the official said.

In a separate case, two passengers from the UK were found positive for Covid-19 after they arrived at the airport at Calcutta, health department officials said on Tuesday.

A flight carrying 222 passengers from the UK arrived at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport on Sunday night, they said.

“Twenty-five passengers did not have Covid reports with them. So they were taken to a nearby quarantine centre, and their coronavirus tests were conducted. Two tested positive,” the West Bengal Health and Family Welfare Department official said.

The Centre on Monday announced that all UK-India flights will remain suspended from Wednesday to December 31 owing to the emergence of the new variant of the virus.

It also said all passengers coming from the UK on Monday and Tuesday would be compulsorily tested for coronavirus on arrival at airports.

Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Twitter that the passengers who are found Covid-19-positive would be sent for institutional quarantine set up by states or union territories (UTs).

“Those found negative should be advised to isolate at home for seven days and will be medically monitored by states/UTs,” Puri added.

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Harsh vardhan on Monday assured that the government is vigilant, and there is no need to panic over the emergence of this new starin.

He said the government had done everything that was important to handle the Covid-19 situation in the last one year. The scientific community, he added, had very ably risen to the occasion, continuously striving and contributing to whatever was needed to combat and understand any aspect of Covid-19.