The United States on Monday advised its citizens to avoid travelling to India even if they are fully vaccinated. The country’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has put India under the the “Level 4” or “very high” category in their classification of Covid-19 levels in foreign countries.

“If you must travel to India, get fully vaccinated before travel,” the public health agency said in its advisory on Monday. “All travellers should wear a mask, stay 6 feet from others, avoid crowds, and wash their hands.”

Earlier on Monday, the US’ State Department had announced that it would begin to update its travel advisories to align them more closely with those from the CDC, PTI reported.

The department had said that it would issue specific warnings against travelling to roughly 80% of the world’s countries due to pandemic risks. It also asked Americans to reconsider their international travel plans before proceeding in view of the viral infection resurfacing in many countries. However, it has not yet revealed the countries against which it plans to issue warnings.

The United Kingdom also added India to its travel “red-list” on Monday. The move bans all arrivals from India except for British or Irish citizens, who will have to pay to stay in a UK government-approved quarantine hotel for 10 days on their return. The restriction will come into effect from April 23. The decision was made after 103 new cases of a coronavirus variant first detected in India, were found in Britain.

Earlier this month, New Zealand also restricted travellers from India due to a spike in the infections.

Meanwhile, India on Tuesday recorded 2,59,170 new coronavirus cases, taking its tally of infections since the beginning of the pandemic in January 2020 to 1,53,21,089. With 1,761 deaths, the toll rose to 1,80,530. This is the highest number of deaths recorded in a day since the start of the pandemic.

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