Amid escalating COVID-19 cases, many countries impose travel restrictions to and from India

From opening air bubbles since the first COVID-19 wave to now being red-listed by many countries as the second wave hits, India is now facing outbound travel restrictions. As the Coronavirus cases in India have crossed more than 2 lakh per day, many countries have shown their apprehensions with traveling to and from India. Not two days ago, the United Kingdom put India on its travel red list. This was followed by the United States’ Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urging people to avoid ant trips to India.

Earlier this month, New Zealand suspended entry of all travelers from India (including their residents). Hong Kong too, took action and banned all passenger flights coming from India for the next 14 days.

Previously, India recorded more than 100 cases of the new Coronavirus strains. This put countries like the UK and Hong Kong on high alert as the transmission rate of mutated strains are quite high. Not to forget, daily rise in active COVID-19 cases is not just a concern for India, but can be a problem for other countries if travel restrictions are not imposed. The sheer number led to the US CDC to issue an advisory where it updated the COVID-19 assessment for India from Level 3 to Level 4. To be sure, Level 4 is the highest level on its scale. On Tuesday, there were 20,31,977 active coronavirus cases in India.

UK’s red-list

The latest travel guidelines by the UK government says that if anyone arrives in the UK from India before 4 am (local time) on April 23, they will have to go under self-isolation for 10 days in the place they are staying and take a RT-PCR test on the second and eighth day. After this deadline, only British, Irish or third-country nationals with residency rights will be allowed to enter the country when coming from India. Even in this case, quarantine is necessary.

The US CDC’s guidelines

CDC in the US has notified people via its travel page that says despite being fully vaccinated, people are at risk of getting and spreading Coronavirus (mutated variants) and therefore, all should avoid traveling to India. If need be, CDC said that people will have to get fully vaccinated prior to travel and ensure wearing a mask as well as social distancing protocols.