Maldives bans travel from South Asia as COVID cases soar

Indian Ocean island nation recorded single-day rise of 1,500 cases on Tuesday, compared with less than 100 a month ago.

Rich Indians can no longer escape their country’s raging pandemic by holidaying in the Maldives, after the island paradise said it would ban travel from South Asia as it battles a surge in COVID-19 infections. The Indian Ocean holiday destination southwest of India reopened its tourist resorts in July last year after halting international flights for more than three months at the start of the pandemic. But the atoll nation, a group of islands with 340,000 people, has been grappling with a jump in cases, including a record single-day rise of 1,500 on Tuesday – compared with less than 100 cases just one month ago.