Germany, Italy, Netherlands join nations in banning travelers from India amid COVID surge

As governments across the globe impose restrictions on travellers from India including banning flights and making 7 or 10-day quarantine mandatory on arrivals, Netherlands, Maldives, Germany, Italy have suspended travel from India. The Netherlands will be suspending all passenger flights from India from 6 PM on April 26 till May 1 in the wake of a surge of COVID-19 cases in India. Sputnik quoted the Dutch Aviation Ministry statement saying, “A flight ban will take effect for passenger flights from India at 6 p.m. on Monday, April 26... The flight ban will be in place until at least 00:01 a.m. on May 1.”

Italy, Germany and Maldives ban travel

Maldives, Germany, Italy, Bangladesh have most recently joined the list of countries that banned Indian travellers. As per reports, only German passport holders will be allowed to enter the European nation from India. Meanwhile, Italy has also barred travellers who have been in India in the past two weeks from entering the nation excluding Italian residents, but only with COVID-19 negative test before departure and will be subjected to quarantine on arrival. On April 25, the Maldives tourism minister tweeted that from April 27, the nation banned tourists from India from staying at the facilities meant for tourists.

While France is still planning on its limitations on travellers from India, following nations that have already imposed restrictions on passengers or banned travel altogether from the country:

• UK
• UAE
• Canada
• US
• Oman
• Hong Kong
• New Zealand
• Australia
• Pakistan
• Kuwait
• Singapore

Meanwhile, with 3,52,991 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, the highest so far, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 1,73,13,163 while active cases have crossed the 28-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on April 26. The death toll increased to 1,95,123 with a record 2,812 new fatalities. Registering a steady increase, the active cases have increased to 28,13,658 comprising 16.25 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further dropped to 82.62 per cent.

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