Lockdowned Iran Bans Travelers From India Over Covid Alternative

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Skift Take

Iran joins a growing list of locations with concerns over Covid variants in India, barring travelers from the country on Saturday. Till vaccines present more quickly across the world, a ban like this, unfortunately, will not be the last.

Tom Lowry

Iran stated on Saturday that it would disallow tourists from India over a COVID-19 variation to prevent its spread in the currently stricken country.

Authorities, however, did not state if any cases of the variant first identified in India in late March had been found in Iran, the epicentre of the pandemic in the Middle East.

“The Indian coronavirus is a new risk we face,” President Hassan Rouhani stated in remarks transmitted on state TV.

“The Indian virus is more dangerous than the English and Brazilian versions,” he included.

“All the eastern provinces should make sure individuals contaminated with the virus do not cross the borders into the country,” Rouhani stated. Iran’s eastern provinces border with Pakistan and Afghanistan. Visitors can likewise take a trip Iran by method of the Gulf.

Iran’s civil air travel organisation announced on regional media that all flights to and from India and Pakistan would be halted from midnight Sunday.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki has asked the interior minister to “stop the direct and indirect transport of tourists from India”, Iranian media reported.

The majority of Iran, whose coronavirus cases have gone beyond 2 million, has been under a lockdown for the past two weeks as it grapples with a 4th wave of the pandemic.

The health ministry has reported a daily average of over 20,000 infections. Nearly 70,000 have actually died.

The country’s vaccination drive, on the other hand, has actually been sluggish going.

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