With a severe rise in COVID-19 cases as India is facing the second wave of coronavirus, several countries are imposing an international travel ban to and from India.
In a single day, India has recorded an astonishing number of 2,59,000+ cases on the 19th of April and the numbers are becoming quite scary. Keeping the current scenario in mind, to protect themselves from being in the same situation, many countries like Hong Kong, New Zealand, Pakistan, and the UK have imposed a ban on flights to or from India.
Here are some of the countries and their reasons for imposing a ban on the flight to or from India.
HONG KONG
On the 18th of April i.e, last Sunday, Hong Kong issued an “emergency circuit breaker” which states an immediate ban on passengers flights for 14 days from 20th of April to 2nd of May.
This decision was carried out after 50 passengers coming from India tested positive for COVID-19 on their arrival to Hong Kong.
NEW ZEALAND
Unlike many other countries, New Zealand has been successful in controlling the spread of coronavirus from the start by imposing strict rules and regulations.
New Zealand imposed a ban on the arrival and departure of flights from India earlier this month. This rule came into effect as 17 out of 23 passengers coming from India tested positive for the virus.
With the cooperation from the citizens of New Zealand, strict laws, and safeguarding the health of the public, New Zealand had no case in the last 40 days and this news has come in as a worry for the Government of New Zealand.
PAKISTAN
India’s neighboring country Pakistan was also forced to ban the arrival and departure of passengers coming from India with the sudden uprising of cases in India.
A statement issued by an official from Pakistan quoted “The working committee has decided to ban passengers coming from India through air and land routes to control the spread of novel coronavirus.”
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
On the 20th of April, the “United States’ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a travel advisory” committee urged everyone to avoid traveling to India even after getting vaccinated as they would risk spreading Covid-19 variants.
The USA also placed India in the Level 4 category states that the Level of Covid-19 is very high in the country.
UNITED KINGDOM
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson postponed his visit to India on the 19th of April and on the 20th of April, just a day after, the United Kingdom has put India on their “red list”. This condition states a grace period of 4 days for everyone to travel to the UK but with a strict quarantine period of 11 days.
After 4 am local UK time on 23rd of April, a ban on travel to or from India along with 39 other severe hit countries will be imposed. The UK also stated that any citizen from another country who visited the under ban counties in the last 10 days should also be quarantined for a period of 10 days.
This decision came into effect after the United Kingdom has seen a rise in the positive cases and deaths in recent days.
With several other countries not posing a travel ban yet, they have made strict rules to submit a negative certificate against the virus with a test that was taken 48 hours before the check-in time.
It is also believed that many other countries are in talks to follow the same path as the US, UK, Hong Kong, and New Zealand if the same situation prevails in India.
All these verdicts will further hit the air travel business in India which is already facing severe losses since the first ban on March 21st, 2020, imposed by the Indian Government.
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