New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday requested the central government to extend the ban on UK flights till January 31 in the backdrop of new coronavirus strain.

Kejriwal's appeal comes as the Centre earlier announced that the international flights from the UK will resume operations from January 8.

"The Centre has decided to lift the ban and restart UK flights. In view of the extremely serious COVID-19 situation in the UK, I would urge the Cenre to extend the ban till January 31," Kejriwal tweeted.

In another tweet, the Chief Minister said: "With great difficulty, people have brought the COVID-19 situation under control. The UK's COVID-19 situation is very serious. Now, why lift the ban and expose our people to risk?"

The flights between India and the UK were suspended from December 23 to January 7 in the wake of detection of a more infectious coronavirus strain in UK population.

A total of 73 persons have been detected with the new corona strain in India so far.

As per the fresh safety guideline issued on January 4, the Centre had said that those travelling between January 8 and 31 would be mandatorily subjected to self-paid RT-PCR tests on arrival at the Indian airports.

Taking to Twitter, Union Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on January 2 had said that flights from India to the UK will resume from January 6, while services from that country to India would resume from January 8.

Puri had announced that only 30 flights per week will operate between India and the UK when services resume from January 8 and that this arrangement will continue till January 23.