Kabul airport suspends operations till further notice
Darpan News Desk IANS, 23 Aug, 2021 10:56 AM
New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) All flights to and from the Kabul International Airport have been suspended until further notice due to large crowds seeking to flee Afghanistan, the national civil aviation authority said in a statement issued on Monday.
"All flights at the Hamid Karzai International Airport are suspended until further notice. Passengers looking to fly to different regions around the country and abroad will be notified in advance when flights will be resumed. These measures are taken to avoid crowds and unrest in the airport," read a statement published on the agency's Facebook page, Tass reported.
The statement also stresses that the Afghan aviation authorities "are working hard for domestic and international flights to and from the Kabul airport to resume as soon as possible."
The situation at the Kabul airport has remained tense ever since the Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours on August 15.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control last week warned the Delta variant of the virus is so contagious, vaccinated people who do get infected could be just as big a risk to others as people who aren't vaccinated.
The new requirement, which will be phased in over several weeks in August and September, is the most aggressive step the city has taken yet to curb a surge in cases caused by the delta variant.
The findings have the potential to upend past thinking about how the disease is spread. Previously, vaccinated people who got infected were thought to have low levels of virus and to be unlikely to pass it to others. But the new data shows that is not the case with the delta variant.
President Joe Biden is calling on states and local governments to join those that are already handing out dollars for shots. New York, the nation's biggest city, started doling out $100 awards on Friday.
The internal documents also cite studies from Canada, Singapore and Scotland showing that the delta variant may pose a greater risk for hospitalization, intensive care treatment and death than the alpha variant, first detected in the United Kingdom.