Travel from India to the UK is being banned for non-UK and Irish citizens from 4am on Friday after the country was added to the travel “red list”.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced the “vital but difficult” decision was made due to a new COVID variant first identified in India, of which 103 cases have been detected in the UK.
He told MPs: “We’ve been analysing samples from these cases to see if this variant has any concerning characteristics – like greater transmissibility or resistance to treatments and vaccines – meaning it has to be treated as a variant of concern.
“After studying the data and on a precautionary basis, we’ve made the difficult but vital decision to add India to the red list.”