India expects countries to ease travel restrictions

As the downward trend of COVID-19 infections continues, India hopes that more countries would soon lift travel restrictions on Indians.

In April when deadly second wave of COVID virus gripped India and country was reporting around four lakh cases a day, many countries had put India in the red list and some even imposed complete ban on entry of Indians

The main reason behind these restrictions was spread of COVID variant B.1.617, which first emerged in India.

Now that steep COVID-19 curve has begun to bend downwards, India hopes that countries would open restrictions.

Talking to reporters in virtual weekly briefing MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that some countries have started the process of easing restrictions.

"When COVID-19 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," he said.

UAE, Canada, Australia, UK , Oman, Nepal, Philippines, Maldives, Kuwait, Italy, France, Germany and New Zealand are among the countries which imposed restrictions on Indians.

However, some countries had eased restrictions on travel from India. These include. Netherland, Russia, South Africa, Egypt and Turkey.

( With inputs from ANI )