Serving food on flights of less than two-hour duration can be resumed: Govt

Serving food on flights with a duration of less than two hours can be resumed, the Union health ministry is learnt to have informed the civil aviation ministry after the latter sought inputs from it for amending the existing regulations.

The health ministry has also said the crew members on a flight need not wear coveralls but should continue to wear gloves, masks and face shields, according to sources.

Under the existing guidelines, airlines are not allowed to serve meals in flights that have a duration of less than two hours. The ban came into effect from April 15.

When the scheduled domestic flight services were resumed on May 25 last year after the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the ministry had allowed the airlines to serve in-flight meals under certain conditions.

"The civil aviation ministry is reviewing the on-board meal services in domestic flights in view of a decline in the number of daily COVID-19 cases and has sought inputs from the health ministry for amending the existing guidelines.

"The health ministry has now informed that serving food on flights of less than two hours can be resumed and that the crew members need not wear coveralls but should continue to wear gloves, masks and face shields," a source said.

With 11,850 fresh cases, India's COVID-19 tally has shot up to 3,44,26,036, while the number of active cases of the infection has declined to 1,36,308, the lowest in 274 days, according to the health ministry's data updated at 8 am on Saturday.

The death toll due to the viral disease has climbed to 4,63,245 with 555 more fatalities.

The number of fresh COVID-19 cases has been below 20,000 for 36 straight days and less than 50,000 fresh cases have been reported for 139 consecutive days.