Italy imposes travel ban from India over COVID-19 variant 

Italy has joined other countries by imposing restrictions on travel from India to avert the spread of a COVID-19 variant as the Asian nation struggles with a surge in infections.

Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza said on Twitter,he had signed an order barring foreigntravellers, who have been in India in the past 14 days from entering the country.

India, which is facing a health crisis, is battling a 'double mutant' strain of COVID-19. On Sunday, the country posted the world's highest single-day increase in cases for a fourth day.

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Italian residents will be allowed to return from India with a negative test result at their departure and one at their arrival and then have to go into quarantine, the minister said.

Those already in Italy and who travelled from India in the past 14 days were requested to undergo a swab."Our scientists are at work to study the new Indian variant," Speranza said.

Earlier,Germany’s Health Minister Jens Spahn said, the country will shut out alltravellersarriving from India apart from its own citizens as a new variant has made the South Asian country the latest coronavirus hotspot.

"We're very worried about the new mutation of the virus discovered in India. So as not to endanger our vaccinationprogramme, India travel has to be significantly limited," Spahn told the Funke newspaper group.

Only German citizens will be allowed to enter the country when arriving from India, he added.

As Spahn plans to designate India a ‘virus variant zone’,travellerswill have to be tested before departure for Germany and immediately enter a 14-day quarantine on arrival.

Berlin had already dubbed India a 'zone with particularly high risk of infection'.

(With inputs from agencies)