France to impose 10-day quarantine for travellers from India amid COVID-19 surge

France will be imposing a 10-day quarantine for travellers arriving from India in the upcoming days to prevent the spread of COVID-19, said French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal on April 21.  The move of restricting travel from India came just days after France announced the suspension of flights from Brazil to protect the European nation from P1 or Brazilian variant of novel coronavirus. It also announced quarantines for passengers from Argentina, Chile and South Africa. 

"For certain countries where the health situation is very serious and worrisome in particular, we will again tighten the screws," Attal said after a cabinet meeting on the pandemic response.

"India will be added to this list," he said, before adding that the full details of the travel restrictions will be unveiled in the coming days.

The second wave of COVID-19 has tightened its grip on India especially during the recent days with the government registering a record-high surge in cases even after kickstarting the vaccination campaign. Further, there’s added worry of the ‘double mutant’ strain of the coronavirus that is also discovered in India. Indian Council of Medical Research on April 21 also revealed that indigenously developed COVID-19 vaccine, Covaxin neutralises the worrying ‘double mutant’ strain of SARS-CoV-2 and other variants.

COVID-19 in India

India continues to record an uptick in fresh coronavirus infections. For the past three days, the nation has registered an excess of two lakh COVID-19 infections and over 1,000 deaths on a daily basis. As of April 21, in the last 24 hours, India again recorded the biggest spike with more than 2,000 deaths and 2,95,041 fresh cases of COVID-19. The total count is now pushed over 15.6 million as the government gives a nod to vaccination for all above the age of 18. The decision came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a series of review meetings with the medical fraternity and pharmaceutical manufacturers over the ever-worsening situation of COVID-19 in the country, and the ongoing vaccination drive earlier in the day. 

Image credits: AP