The UK government on Monday said India will be added to its “red list” of countries, as the country battles a new variant and a surge in coronavirus cases that is overwhelming hospitals. In a ministerial statement in the House of Commons, health secretary Matt Hancock confirmed that India will join the 39 other countries on the red list from 4am on April
Under the new guidance, British and Irish nationals travelling from India will have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days following their arrival. Individuals who are not UK or Irish citizens will not be permitted to enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days, Hancock said.
The health secretary told MPs that their decision was “difficult but vital”, adding that the “biggest risk” to the UK’s vaccination rollout programme was the threat of new variants. The announcement follows the joint decision by the British and Indian governments to scrap prime minister Boris Johnson’s scheduled visit to India next week.
The trip, during which Johnson had hoped to discuss the prospects of a closer trading partnership with India, was initially planned to run for four days but had been scaled back. He will speak with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi remotely instead, with plans for the two leaders to meet in person later this year.
The cancellation comes as India’s capital city region has been put under lockdown and authorities have prohibited the use of oxygen except for essential services, with the country battling a surge in coronavirus cases that is overwhelming hospitals. India continues to set single-day records of coronavirus cases, reporting more than 273,000 new infections and 1,619 deaths on Monday, with the number of new cases growing by an average of 7 per cent a day, one of the fastest rates in any big country.
The surge is believed to be linked to a new B.1.617 variant that was first discovered in the country.