U.S. Imposes India Travel Ban Following a Surge in COVID-19 Cases

Following the worst outbreak of Coronavirus yet, President Biden has enacted a travel ban on India. On May 1 alone, India recorded more than 390 thousand COVID-19 cases, the highest in history. This is part of a bigger wave of infections that have steadily climbed during the month of April in which the country added 6.6 million cases to its total, setting its record at 19.6 million.

As many countries rush to impose bans, this leaves Indian airlines devastated. The pandemic has seen Air India post losses of up to 1.3 billion USD, with similar losses expected throughout the remainder of the year. However, domestic airlines such as Indigo and Spicejet are relatively unaffected by the travel ban, as they were allowed to operate 80% of pre-COVID flights.