Prime Minister Boris Johnson cancels his planned trip to India amid growing concerns over the situation regarding Covid infections in the country. He says it is the “only sensible” thing to do.
The trip was originally meant to be in January, but was cancelled then due to national lockdown in the UK. The rescheduled date is 26 April, but given the current Covid situation in the country, the PM has decided against visiting. Since 15 April there has been over 200,000 cases a day in India.
Instead of visiting, Mr Johnson says he will now speak to the Indian PM Narendra Modi online.
The trip would have been the PM’s first major overseas visit since he took office. The UK government hoped it would boost trade and investment ties, as well as move the two countries nearer to agreeing a post-Brexit deal.
The state of the pandemic in India
However, the spread of a Covid variant in India has caused concern, leading to suggestions for the trip to not go ahead. On Sunday, India reported 1,620 deaths from the virus, and capital city Delhi is now in lockdown.
According to Public Health England, there are 73 cases of the variant in England, and four detected in Scotland. Health officials in the UK are investigating the variant, first found in India, to check how easily it spreads and if is able to resist the vaccine.
As it stands, India is not on the UK government’s high risk “red list”. And apparently the UK do not yet have enough data to determine if it should be. This means people arriving from the country do not have to quarantine for 10 days in a hotel.
Mr Johnson says the relationship between the UK and India is of “huge importance”, and he is frustrated by the cancellation. But he knows that sadly it won’t be able to go ahead, given the state of the pandemic there. The sensible thing to do is postpone it.
The UK and Indian government remain in regular contact and Mr Johnson and Mr Modi hope to meet in person later this year.
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