UAE extends suspension of entry for travellers from India

DUBAI : The United Arab Emirates has extended a ban on entry from travellers coming from India, the foreign ministry in Abu Dhabi said in a statement on its website Tuesday, to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The statement did not specify a date to lift the suspension, which was first announced on April 22.

"Flights between the two countries will continue to allow the transport of passengers from the UAE to India," it said.

COVID-19 in India:

India's tally of coronavirus infections surged past 20 million on Tuesday, boosted by 357,229 new cases over the last 24 hours, while deaths rose 3,449 for a toll of 222,408, health ministry data showed.

India becomes the world's second nation, after the United States, to pass the grim milestone. It took the south Asian country just over four months to add 10 million cases, versus more than ten months for its first 10 million.

India's daily COVID-19 shots have fallen sharply from an all-time high reached early last month as domestic companies struggle to boost supplies and imports are limited, even as the country fights the world's worst surge in infections.

Daily inoculations have averaged 2.5 million since hitting a peak of 4.5 million on April 5. A quadrupling of coronavirus cases during the period has collapsed the public health system in many regions of the country.

India, with the world's biggest vaccine making capacity, has partially or fully immunised only 9.5% of its 1.35 billion people, according to data from the government's Co-Win https://dashboard.cowin.gov.in portal.

Public forecasts by its only two current vaccine producers show their total monthly output of 70-80 million doses would increase only in two months or more, though the number of people eligible for vaccines has doubled to an estimated 800 million since May 1.

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