Maldives, Bangladesh, Germany, Italy ban flights from India due to hike in COVID cases

Amid rising cases of COVID-19 in the country, Maldives, Bangladesh, Italy and Germany have banned flights from India. As per latest travel restrictions, these countries have added India to their banned list with immediate effect.

A tweet shared by the Maldives tourism minister on Sunday read, “With effect from April 27, (Maldives’ health authorities) suspends tourists travelling from India to Maldives from staying at tourist facilities in inhabited islands.”
According to the reports, only German nationals and people with a German resident permit travelling from India are allowed entry in Germany. But according to a TOI report, Lufthansa and Air India have said that they will not suspend flights between India and Germany.

Jens Spahn, German Health Minister Tweeted on Saturday and wrote (translated):

Die neu entdeckte Virus-Mutation in Indien besorgt uns sehr. Um unsere Impfkampagne nicht zu gefährden, muss der Reiseverkehr mit Indien deutlich eingeschränkt werden. Daher wird die Bundesregierung Indien kurzfristig zum Virusvariantengebiet erklären. (1/2)

— Jens Spahn (@jensspahn) April 24, 2021

“The newly discovered virus mutation in India worries us very much. In order not to jeopardise our vaccination campaign, travel to India must be significantly restricted. Therefore, the federal government will shortly declare India a virus variant area. From Sunday night, only Germans from India are allowed to enter, they must also be tested before departure and immediately after entry into a 14-day quarantine.”

Italy on the other hand has suspended entry of foreign travellers who have been in India in the past 14 days. Besides, Italians living in India will be allowed to return only with a negative test result before departure and on arrival. Soon after entering Italy, they will have to go into quarantine.