US to restrict travel from India over COVID surge

President Biden will restrict travel to the US from India starting May 4 amid the Asian nation’s COVID-19 crisis, the White House announced Friday.

“The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating in India,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said of the decision, which was made on the advice of the CDC. India’s Health Ministry on Friday reported 3,498 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the country’s fatality toll to 208,330. The nation is second only to the United States in terms of total COVID-19 deaths, although experts believe that India’s numbers are severely undercounted.