The Foreign & Commonwealth Office has now advising British travellers to avoid all non-essential global travel “indefinitely”.

The move extends advice originally issued on March 17th that had initially been expected to be in place for 30 days.

The government body is also urging British travellers overseas to return home if they are able to do so.

With commercial aviation severely curtailed, the government last week offered up to £75 million to enable special charter flights to priority countries to bring back UK residents.

Charter flights from Goa, Mumbai and Delhi will leave later this week, with more details here.

Acting high commissioner to India, Jan Thompson, said: “We know how worrying the past few weeks have been for British nationals in India.

“I hope this announcement will bring relief, especially to those in greatest need.

“Due to the large numbers of British travellers involved, the scale of this operation is huge.

“The UK government continues to work hard with our Indian counterparts in New Delhi and London to arrange a safe journey back for as many people as possible.”

The move to discourage all travel from the UK for the foreseeable future comes as the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread around the world.

There have to date been 1.2 million recorded cases, with upward of 70,000 deaths – though the figures are expected to be higher due to under reporting in some places.

Coronavirus

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