British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday cancelled his visit to New Delhi in January-end to be the chief guest at this year’s Republic Day parade after he put his country in lockdown on Monday night owing to a surge in Covid-19 cases.

Before the announcement from 10 Downing Street this evening, Johnson called up Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inform him about his inability to visit India as scheduled and held out the hope of a visit in the first half of the calendar year.

“In light of the national lockdown announced last night, and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading, the Prime Minister said that it was important for him to remain in the UK so he can focus on the domestic response to the virus,’’ a statement issued by 10 Downing Street said.

While this has put India in a fix as it has to look for a chief guest for the parade at the last minute. External affairs ministry sources said Modi conveyed his understanding of the exceptional situation and hoped that the UK would overcome the Covid-19 challenges successfully.

The visit, which was confirmed last month during the visit of the British foreign secretary Dominic Raab, has been in doubt ever since the subsequent emergence of a faster-spreading British variant of the virus; forcing several countries including India to stop all flights to the UK India had announced the resumption of limited flights to the UK from this Thursday and there was no official word till late Tuesday if there is a rethink on this count owing to the lockdown announced yesterday.