JUST IN: Biden Administration to Restrict Travel from India Amid Covid-19 Surge
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The United States is planning to announce new restrictions limiting travel from India, amid that nation’s current Covid-19 surge.
The alarming rise in cases includes, per Reuters, a total of 300,000+ cases reported “for nine days in a row.” As of this posting, the total number of covid-19 cases in India has crossed the 18 million mark, and the total death toll is over 200,000.
CNN reported Friday that the Biden administration will be restricting travel from India as of this coming Tuesday, May 4th:
“The policy was implemented in light of extraordinarily high Covid-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in India,” a White House official said…
The policy won’t apply to American citizens, lawful permanent residents or other people with exemptions. As with all international travelers, individuals who fit that criteria traveling from India must still test negative prior to leaving the country, quarantine if they have not been vaccinated and test negative again upon reentering the US from India.
The restrictions also do not apply to humanitarian workers.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced the news after CNN’s report came out:
US restricting travel from #India immediately, announces @PressSec. pic.twitter.com/wylxjrdoIG
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) April 30, 2021
There have been worries about a Covid-19 variant causing the surge in India. The New York Times reported earlier this week, “So far the evidence is inconclusive, and researchers caution that other factors could explain the viciousness of the outbreak, which has overwhelmed India’s capital so quickly that hospitals are entirely overrun and crematories burn nonstop. Still, the presence of the variant could complicate the taming of India’s Covid-19 disaster.”
