UK PM Boris Johnson cancels India visit amid outbreak of new Covid-19 strain

New Delhi: United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was to be the Chief Guest at Republic Day parade on January 26, has put off his India visit due to outbreak of new strain of coronavirus and imposition severe lockdown in Britain.

“UK PM called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi today morning, to express regret that he was unable to visit India as planned,” an official statement said.

“Johnson has expressed hope to visit India in the first half of 2021 ahead of UK’s G 7 Summit that PM Modi is likely to attend as a guest,” it said further.

India had invited the prime minister of the UK as the Chief Guest in the Republic Day parade in 2021. UK Foreign Secretary Raab visited India in December and announced Johnson has accepted India’s invitation.

The cancellation of the visit was announced a day after Prime Minister Johnson imposed the third lockdown in the UK amid rising coronavirus cases in the country. UK has reported more than 20 lakh COVID-19 cases and 70,000 deaths linked to the disease.

UK PM has imposed a new stay-at-home lockdown in Covid-19 hit Britain, until at least mid-February to battle the ‘critical moment’ in the coronavirus pandemic, which has been exacerbated due to a new highly transmissible variant of the deadly virus.

Johnson has also urged people to stay at home and protect overburdened United Kingdom National Health Service.

In a series of tweets, he expressed hope that as the inoculation process has begun in the country, the UK is “tilting the odds against COVID-19 in favour of the British People”.

“I want to say to everyone right across the United Kingdom that I know how tough this is, I know how frustrated you are, I know that you have had more than enough of government guidance about defeating this virus. But now more than ever, we must pull together,” he wrote on Twitter.

“With every jab that goes into our arms, we are tilting the odds against Covid and in favour of the British people. And, thanks to the miracle of science, not only is the end in sight but we know exactly how we will get there. But for now, I am afraid, you must once again stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives,” his subsequent tweet read.

Britain on Monday also began rolling out the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

Britain has been administrating two vaccines against COVID-19, one made by Pfizer and BioNTech and the other by Oxford University and AstraZeneca. More than one million people have already received their first dose.