Funeral pyres burn in a disused granite quarry that was repurposed to cremate the dead due to COVID-19 on Friday in Bengaluru, India. The US will impose new travel restrictions on travelers out of the country. Abhishek Chinnappa / Getty Images hide subtitles
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Abhishek Chinnappa / Getty Images
Funeral pyres burn in a disused granite quarry that was repurposed to cremate the dead due to COVID-19 on Friday in Bengaluru, India. The US will impose new travel restrictions on travelers out of the country.
Abhishek Chinnappa / Getty Images
Biden’s government will put a travel ban on non-U.S. Or permanent residents coming to the country from India as several coronavirus variants have taken the COVID-19 outbreak in India to new heights. The policy comes into force on Tuesday The White House said.
India was already under a State Department issued or updated Level 4 – Do Not Travel Advisory Dozens of travel advice in connection with the ongoing spread of the coronavirus last week. The new ban will take precaution to a new level.
The policy does not apply to US citizens, said a Biden administration official on condition of anonymity. Statutory permanent residents and other persons with exceptions could also travel to the United States from India.
As part of the existing restrictions on international passengers, anyone coming to the US would continue to be subject to coronavirus testing measures and must be quarantined if they have not been vaccinated.
The travel ban is imposed on the recommendation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Jen Psaki, White House press secretary.
In a statement released on Friday, Psaki said: “The policy will be implemented in India given the extraordinarily high COVID-19 case numbers and several variants in circulation.”
Like many countries, India dealt with a first wave of the coronavirus in 2020. However, now there is a tsunami of new cases forcing a shortage of key resources, from the hospital room to oxygen tanks.
Unlike some countries that have managed to avoid a renewed spike in deaths and critical hospitalizations despite recent outbreaks, India also has an unprecedented number of deaths. The country reported nearly 3,500 deaths on Friday alone. And some health professionals claim local officials have pressured them to underestimate COVID-19 deaths Lauren Frayer and Sushmita Pathak from NPR reported. Test kits are also in short supply in India, leading to speculation that the scale of the outbreak is even bigger than official reports suggest.
India set and broke world records for the most widely reported COVID-19 cases over the past week as its citizens and health officials watch infection rates rise at appalling rates. It hit a new high on Friday, as reported by the Indian Ministry of Health 386,453 new infections.
The number of new cases in India has steadily exceeded the previous world record of more than 312,000 cases the US reported Beginning of January. The US remains the country with the most reported COVID-19 cases, with more than 32.3 million Johns Hopkins University. India has reported nearly 18.8 million cases.
The US is sending several emergency shipments to India. the State Department said The first flight landed late on Thursday evening.
Vice President Harris told reporters Friday that a plane loaded with aid, including oxygen, would leave the United States for India that night. “We have long-standing, decades-long relationships with India, particularly with the Indian people, on public health issues,” said Harris.
