Indians in UK scramble for last flights before deadline

London: A mad dash for emergency visas and flights was witnessed on Tuesday as Indians in the UK began racing against time before the 1200 GMT deadline for India's travel ban from Britain and Europe kicks in on Wednesday, as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. India on Monday banned the entry of passengers from Europe, Turkey and the UK from March 18 till March 31 to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

The Indian High Commission in London was inundated with calls and messages on social media from Indians seeking clarifications on the latest travel advisory and also support for emergency visas.

"If you are travelling before the deadline of 1200hrs GMT on 18th March there should not be any problem," the Indian High Commission said in response to a flurry of queries on social media. "The cut-off date and time is for the port of departure," it clarified. People caught up in the chaos range from Indian nationals on tourist as well as student visas set to expire within days or weeks, those on student visas just keen to be back home with loved ones and also those desperate to travel due to a family emergency.

"The Chinese students I spoke to said that the Chinese Embassy spoke to the UK immigration for them to get their student visas extended. Can't the Indian High Commission do the same," questioned one student on Twitter. "Can you please help us students stuck here in London? Some of us are STILL healthy and we don't want to contract this disease which is an inevitability if we are left here," added another.

The novel coronavirus pandemic will kill some 250,000 people in the UK unless more draconian measures were adopted by the government, including putting the whole country under lockdown, scientists have warned.

The Imperial College COVID-19 response team, which has been advising ministers, said that even with the "social distancing" plans set out by the government, the health system will be "overwhelmed many times over", the Metro newspaper reported on Tuesday.

In its latest report, the team said such measures would need to be maintained potentially for 18 months or more until an effective vaccine became available.

Iran said 135 new coronavirus deaths took the country's overall toll to nearly 1,000 Tuesday, as it curtailed celebrations for a fire festival in a bid to contain the disease.

The COVID-19 outbreak in the Islamic republic is one of the deadliest outside China, where the illness originated. The latest deaths, announced by health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour in a televised news conference, take the total death toll in Iran to 988. Since it announced its first two deaths in the holy Shiite city of Qom last month, Iran has taken a series of steps to contain the virus. However it has yet to impose any lockdowns and the outbreak has spread to all 31 of the country's provinces.