Indian government expands the list of countries under travel restrictions

Friday, September 3, 2021

After reports of new SARS-CoV-2 mutations and a rising number of variants come up, the Government of India expands the list of countries under travel restrictions.

So far, passengers travelling from the UK, European Union (EU) and West Asia needed to have a negative RT-PCR report before boarding a flight.

Therefore an RT-PCR test was mandatory upon arrival in India.

Union health secretary, Rajesh Bhushan said during a press briefing that the country has added countries like South Africa, Bangladesh, Botswana, China, Mauritius, New Zealand and Zimbabwe to the list of the UK, EU, Middle East and more.

This is considering the risk of mutations in SARS-CoV-2.

He also said that international travellers from all these countries would now need RT-PCR negative reports to avail flights to India and RT-PCR testing upon landing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is closely monitoring a new coronavirus “variant of interest” named Mu (scientific name B.1.621).

In its weekly epidemiological update, published on Tuesday, the global public health agency warned about its increasing prevalence in Colombia and Ecuador.

It also shows signs of possible resistance to vaccines.

Cases recorded across the country

The Union health ministry said around 300 cases of Delta plus variant of SARS-CoV-2 have been detected in India so far.

The health ministry reports over 47,092 cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

This includes 69% of the new cases in the last week recorded in Kerala, said Bhushan.

The active caseload is 389,583, or 1.19% of total positive cases. The daily positivity rate stands at 2.80%.

Positivity rate details

Bhushan said 39 districts in the country reported over 10% weekly covid positivity rate in the last week.

In 38 districts it was between 5% and 10%.

Vaccination in India

Over 16% of India’s adult population has received both doses of a covid-19 vaccine, while 54% received at least the first dose.

In Sikkim, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Himachal Pradesh the entire adult population has got at least one dose of the vaccine.

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