<article><p class="lead">Venezuela extended a ban on most commercial and private flights for at least another 30 days to 12 July to support government efforts to contain the Covid-19 virus.</p><p>According to the Civil Aviation Institute (INAC), exceptions include emergency, cargo, humanitarian and repatriation flights.</p><p>An official with the Venezuelan commercial airlines association (ALAV) said the extension was "a disappointment but not a surprise."</p><p>President Nicolas Maduro first <a target="_blank" href="https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2113368-venezuelas-flight-ban-set-to-lapse-on-12-june">closed the skies</a> to non-essential commercial and private flights on 17 March, shutting foreign carriers out of Venezuela and grounding domestic carriers, including state-owned Conviasa, Laser, Avior, Rutaca and Rutas Aereas de Venezuela.</p><p>Maduro ordered the extension after government health authorities detected 164 new Covid-19 infections from 12-14 June that raised total confirmed cases to 2,978 people, according to the information ministry.</p><p>The official data is widely considered a vast underestimate.</p><p>Up to 80pc of confirmed infections since the government decreed a national lockdown in March were imported from neighboring countries, the health ministry says.</p></article>
