Ministry of External Affairs expects travel curbs to lift as COVID cases lower

India's Ministry of External Affairs expects lifting of various travel curbs and bans imposed by other nations on Indian arrivals. The said ban were put into effect as India saw a staggering number of COVID-19 cases in a deadly second wave. The havoc that was wreaked majorly by the B.1.617 COVID variant led a number of nations from across the world to restrict arrivals from India.

While some nations barred passengers who have been to India in the 14 days prior to their arrival in the country, others made quarantine mandatory for those arriving from India. Such bans were also imposed on a number of countries in Southeast Asia, including India's neighbours Nepal, Pakistan as well as Bangladesh. Now that the COVID-19 numbers are seeing a decline in India, the Ministry of External Affairs is expecting some reprieve in the travel restrictions.
A spokesperson from the Ministry of External Affairs addressed the media in a virtual meeting, and expressed that, "When Covid-9 second wave began, some countries imposed temporary travel restrictions on India. We expect that these restrictions should be lifted when situation normalizes. We saw some countries started this process of easing restrictions, other countries should do the same we expect."

Some of the countries to impose such bans are the UAE, UK, Canada, Australia, Philippines, Oman, Maldives, Kuwait, Italy, France, New Zealand and more.