A travel ban has been imposed by the US government on people coming from India starting from May 4th 2021. This decision was taken due to rising covid-19 cases in India. US president Joe Biden issued a notice restricting travel from India on May 4th 2021. Experts in the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that the variant of coronavirus found in India is easily transmitted. The existing covid vaccines can not protect the citizens from this variant. 

People who hold H1B and L visas are not exempted from the travel restrictions. There is also a prohibition of non-citizens who are currently present in India for 14 days or before that. 

However, the ban won't apply to US citizens or permanent residences. The State Department says that the exemptions are given to students whose studies will commence in the fall, humanitarian workers, journalists and academics. Non-citizens parents or legal guardians of children below 21 years or minors and other categories of travellers have also been given exemption. 

Exempted individuals mentioned above have to fulfil the requirements given by the administration for international travellers.  Centres for Disease Control and Prevention requires air travellers to show the test results of covid-19, which is approximately not more than 3 days before the arrival.  Furthermore, travellers are required to take another test in 3-5 days after the arrival.  

The US is not the first country to impose such a restriction. Countries like Australia, Maldives, (add more countries here) have also banned or restricted travellers from India in their country. Government from these countries insisted upon extreme quarantine. 

As per the reports by the Hindu, many American embassies in  Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata have cancelled the visa appointments till May 15th and the consulate in Mumbai is closed till May 28th. This has happened due to the rise in covid-19 cases. 

Currently, the coronavirus cases have been at their peak by 1 million or more last week. The total number of cases since the inception of the pandemic is around 18 million. The death toll has skyrocketed to 2,00,000 and above. The surge of cases due to the government becoming lax i.e loosening the restrictions and its inability to vaccinate the entire population