Russia closes airspace on borders with Ukraine, Belarus
Darpan News Desk IANS, 24 Feb, 2022 02:40 PM
Moscow, Feb 24 (IANS) In view of the latest situation, Russia has closed its airspace to civilian aircraft starting from Thursday on its western borders with Ukraine and Belarus, the Russian aviation authorities announced.
The announcement came shortly after President Vladimir Putin authorised a "special military operation" in the conflict-hit Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, reports Xinhua news agency.
Meanwhile, a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) posted on the website of the US Federal Aviation Administration Civil said that aviation flights in the Ukrainian airspace are limited in view of potential threats.
Flights to Kiev, Dnepr, Lvov and Odessa airports "are restricted due to potential hazard for civil aviation, the notice says.
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Russian Armed Forces are destroying "military infrastructure, air defense facilities, military airfields, aviation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces" with high-precision weapons, not targeting Ukrainian cities.
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.
