Saturday, 01 May 2021_A White House official has said that US President Joe Biden is set to impose new travel restrictions on India starting Tuesday in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic in the country which is second only to the United States in total coronavirus infections.
India has reported more than 300,000 new cases daily for nine days in a row, hitting another global record of 386,452 on Friday.
The White House official told Reuters news agency on Friday that Biden will bar most non-US citizens travelling from India from entering the United States.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised Biden to impose these restrictions "in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 case loads and multiple variants circulating in India," the official said.
Biden in January barred most non-US citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa. He also banned nearly all non-US travelers who have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland and 26 countries in Europe that allow travel across open borders. Now India will also be included in this list.
India’s toll from the coronavirus surged past 200,000 on Wednesday, the country’s deadliest day yet, as shortages of oxygen, medical supplies and hospital staff compounded a record number of new infections.
Total cases in India are nearing 19 million - nearly 8 million since February alone - as virulent new strains have combined with "super-spreader" events such as political rallies and religious festivals.
The second wave of infections has seen at least 300,000 people test positive each day for the past week, overwhelming health care facilities and crematoriums and driving an increasingly urgent international response.
Experts believe the official tally vastly underestimates the actual toll in a nation of 1.3 billion, however.
Coronavirus sufferers, many struggling for breath, flocked to a Sikh temple on the city’s outskirts, hoping to secure some of its limited supplies of oxygen.
Hospitals in and around the Indian capital said oxygen remains scarce, despite commitments to step up supplies.
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