Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has announced that all direct passenger flights from India to Australia will be banned, following the COVID outbreak that has plunged its medical system into chaos.
The South Asian country will not be allowed to send any flights onto Australian borders.
The pause will last until May 15m however a decision to revise the ban will be reviewed before then.
Mr Morrison said indirect flights through cities like Doha, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur have also been paused by their own governments.
#NewsAlert: Australia 🇦🇺 will suspend all direct passenger flights from India until May 15, says PM Scott Morrison. (ANI)
— Balaji Duraisamy (@balajidtweets) April 27, 2021
The leader said Australia would send a range of goods to India to help as the country struggles to deal with the large outbreak due to a critical shortage of medical supplies. Australia is set to send 500 ventilators, 1 million surgical masks, 500,000 protective and other surgical masks, goggles and face shields.
The news comes follows after the National Cabinet decided to reduce flights from India by 30 per cent, last week.
This article originally appeared on Over60.