India’s Variant: A new strain of COVID-19 has emerged in India, which is highly infectious. Delhi has been locked down for 6 days as infections pass the 15 million mark. This variant is also called the ‘double mutant variant’ and is highly infectious. This is the second wave of COVID in India and has been devastating for their health industry, as they have run out of hospital beds for patients in Delhi.
The new “double mutation” variant from India #B1617 is surging fast in UK—5x increase in % of #COVID19 cases in just 2 weeks. Same with the South Africa #B1351 variant. When did they increase? After schools reopened.
And keep in mind—it’s rising despite high vaccinations. pic.twitter.com/fzZC3VAJdZ
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) April 19, 2021
Pakistan’s Response: Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umer, in a National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) meeting, decided that travel will be completely banned between the two states for the next two weeks, starting Monday, 19th April. According to their statement, “The forum decided to place India in the list of Category C countries for two weeks. There will be a ban on inbound passengers coming from India via air and land route.” UK’s Response: The United Kingdom has added India to its ‘red list’ of countries that bans most travel. The British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, has also cancelled his trip to India. Under these restrictions, anyone who travelled to India in the last 10 days will not be allowed to enter the UK, while British and Irish nationals will have to undergo a 10-day quarantine upon their entry. There are already 103 cases of the Indian variant in the UK. Pakistan is also currently on the same list.