India's Karnataka bans domestic air travel from 5 other states to contain COVID-19

APD NEWS

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India's southwestern state of Karnataka has banned air travel from five states of the country to curb the spread of COVID-19 from travelers from these states.

The five states include Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, state minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs JC Madhuswamy said on Thursday.

The state had already restricted people from the three states of Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat from entering the state via road.

India, which is ranked 10th among all countries in the world for confirmed cases of COVID-19, has four of its states accounting for 67 percent of the cases in the country. Apart from the western state of Maharashtra, which accounts for 36 percent cases, the rest of the top three states are the southern state of Tamil Nadu, western state of Gujarat and Delhi, the country's capital.

People returning from these states have tested positive in large numbers and they were already in quarantine in Karnataka.

Over the past 24 hours, 115 fresh cases of COVID-19 were reported in Karnataka of which 95 were inter-state passengers. As per the official update on Thursday evening, Karnataka has 1,675 active cases of COVID-19 with 47 deaths, while India has 86,110 active cases with 4,531 deaths so far.