19.04.2021 18:27
From 4 a.m. on Friday, travel from India to UK to be banned for non UK and Irish citizens.
India will be added to the UK's red list, denoting high travel risk amid the pandemic, the country's health secretary announced on Monday.
Starting at 4 a.m. (0400GMT) on Friday, travel from India to the UK will be banned for non-UK and Irish citizens, Matt Hancock said in parliament.
The decision came due to a new Indian variant of the novel coronavirus, of which 103 cases have been found in the UK so far.
Hancock told lawmakers in the House of Commons: "We've been analyzing samples from these cases to see if this variant has any concerning characteristics -- like greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines -- meaning it has to be treated as a variant of concern."
"After studying the data and on a precautionary basis, we've made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list." -