Hyderabad: The Telangana Government has urged the Union Government to ban all incoming international flights into the country to prevent the further ‘import’ of Novel Covid-19 cases. The state Health Minister Etela Rajender spoke with Union Health Minister Harshavardhan on Wednesday.

While speaking to the Union Health Minister Etela urged him to impress upon the Central Government to ban all international air travel into India. Speaking to the media persons he said that the State Government has steadfastly held that every one of the six Covid-19 positive cases recorded in Telangana was that of an individual who got infected in a different country and carried it back. The state Government was concerned about well being of Indians stuck abroad, it is not advisable to get people who are stuck in other countries into India at this stage, he said.

The Central Government should work through local embassies in such countries and ensure all Indians stuck there are looked after and provided the health care needed.

It is not a good idea to get someone with an infection into the county, given the population density and the threat of mass spread of the disease, he said. He said that while it was finally a call for the centre to make, if it wants to bring Indians back home, it can do so in special flights and keep all such returnees in special camps, under its control in Delhi.

The State Health Department announced a total of a new eight Covid-19 positive cases late at night on Wednesday. Of these eight cases, seven are from among the ten Indonesian preaches who were brought to the Gandhi hospital in Hyderabad from Karimnagar on Tuesday; this takes the total number of Covid-19 cases in Telangana to 13.