US advises citizens not to visit India even they received vaccine jab

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Monday issued an advisory discouraging its citizens from visiting India even if they are fully vaccinated. The US national health agency has cited the high level of COVID cases in India to issue such a travel advisory.

In a statement, the CDC remarked that even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to India. The advisory urged that the citizens should be fully vaccinated if travelling to India is necessary for them.

"Because of the current situation in India even fully vaccinated travellers may be at risk for getting and spreading COVID-19 variants and should avoid all travel to India. If you must travel to India, get fully vaccinated before travel. All travellers should wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands," the statement read.

According to CDC, the fully vaccinated travellers do not have to get tested before leaving the United States, unless their destination requires it and they do not have to self-quarantine after arriving in the United States.

The announcement comes on the same day Britain added India to its COVID-19 travel "red list," which effectively bans all travel from the country and makes a 10-day hotel quarantine compulsory for UK residents arriving back to the country.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Monday confirmed the move in the House of Commons as he revealed that 103 cases of the so-called Indian variant had been identified in the UK, of which the "vast majority have links to international travel".

"After studying the data, and on a precautionary basis, we've made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list," the minister told MPs. 

"This means anyone who is not a UK or Irish citizen... cannot enter the UK if they have been in India in the previous 10 days," he added.

The new rules, which Hancock said has not been taken lightly will come into force from Friday.

The COVID-19 situation in India has been alarmingly deteriorating amid the second wave of coronavirus infections. For the past three days, the country has been reporting in excess of two lakh coronavirus infections and over 1,000 related deaths on a daily basis.