The government of Australia on Tuesday announced a temporary ban on direct passenger flights from India, as it battles with the lethal second wave of the novel coronavirus.

According to the media reports, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the suspension would remain in place until at least May 15. Adding that Australia would send medical aid, including oxygen tanks, ventilators and personal protective equipment, to India as its health system strains under the growing caseload.

The Prime Minister said that ‘India was enduring a terrible humanitarian crisis that was also hitting Australian families with ties to the country.’ He said that the scenes in India are truly heartbreaking.

Scott Morrison stressed that the suspension was not a permanent measure. He said that the repatriation flights would resume with the most vulnerable given priority.

It should be noted that the flight ban comes a day after authorities lifted stay-at-home orders for two million people in Perth, in Australia’s west, where a snap lockdown was imposed after a man who returned from his wedding in India infected others in quarantine.

India Coronavirus Situation

Let it be known that India on Monday saw a single-day rise of 3,52,991 COVID-19 infections and 2,812 fatalities with 28,13,658 active cases.

The scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur and Hyderabad applied the Susceptible, Undetected, Tested (positive), and Removed Approach’ (SUTRA) model to predict that active cases would go up further by over one million by mid-May.