New Zealand bans travellers from India as COVID-19 cases increase

New Zealand has banned entry for all travellers from India temporarily amid COVID-19 cases spike. The announcement was made soon after the country reported 23 new positive cases at its border. Among these, 17 were from India. The ban will come in effect from 4 PM local time on April 11 and will remain till April 28.

Talking to the media in a conference, NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said "We are temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India." The PM further said, "I want to emphasize that while arrivals of COVID from India has prompted this measure, we are looking at how we manage high risk points of departure generally. This is not a country specific risk assessment..".
New Zealand was globally applauded for its pandemic handling situation and was among the first countries to report zero cases. Not a single community transmission was reported locally for about 40 days.

Presently, India is suffering from a second wave of COVID-19. The number of daily infections is rising unexpectedly. As per the reports, India has recorded 126,789 cases in the last 24 hours which is worrisome. Among this, Mumbai alone has recorded 10428 cases, Pune is at 11023, while Delhi has 5506 new cases in the last 24 hours.