President Joe Biden will restrict travel to the U.S. from India by most non-U.S. citizens beginning Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Friday, as the world’s second-most populous country struggles with the world’s worst Covid-19 outbreak.
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KEY FACTS
In a statement, Psaki said Biden was acting on advice from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The restrictions “will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in India,” Psaki said.
Biden’s order will ban entry into the U.S. by foreign nationals who have traveled to India within the last 14 days, a White House official told CNN.
U.S. citizens and lawful permanent citizens will not be affected by the restrictions.
India reported more than 380,000 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, the most yet.
This week, India’s death toll surpassed 200,000, but experts caution the actual number is likely much higher.
KEY BACKGROUND
Health experts have worried about the possibility of a severe Covid-19 outbreak in India since the pandemic began due its population density and high poverty rate. For most of the pandemic, though, India was able to keep the disease at bay. But twin forces—a new variant and an easing of restrictions—have combined to cause a severe outbreak in the country in recent weeks. Hospitals are overwhelmed and supplies are running short. Crematoriums are stretched so thin that bodies are being burned on funeral pyres.
WHAT TO WATCH FOR
The U.S. announced Wednesday it will send thousands of oxygen tanks—as well as 15 million masks, 1 million rapid Covid-19 tests, doses of the drug remdesivir, and raw supplies to make AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine—to India in the next few days.
TANGENT
Countries such as France, Canada and Italy have also imposed travel restrictions on India.
NOT SO BIG NUMBER
1.8%. That’s the percentage of Indians who are fully vaccinated, which is far behind the U.S.
SURPRISING FACT
In the week leading up to April 25, India recorded 38% of all Covid-19 cases worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO.)
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