The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism & Hospitality (FAITH), the policy federation of all the national associations representing the complete tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India, has urgently requested to address the negative travel advisory from the US to India. FAITH stated that currently, the US has a travel advisory, rated level 4 for India. On a scale of 1-4, this is the highest level of risk rating, which carries with it the advice of ‘do not travel’. This circular is going to massively hit the Indian travel industry.
The United States of America lifted the “Do Not Travel” Global Health Advisory for Americans on July 6. But it retained this for India stating the risk of contracting COVID-19 is higher there. It also states that if you get sick in India and need medical care, resources may be limited (and overwhelmed)”. So, US citizens are barred from entering India. However, the USA lifted the travel ban for other counties. India announced that people visiting the country must provide COVID negative certificates from August 8.
The USA Removes ‘Do Not Travel’ Advisory But Retains It For India
The US state department announced the lifting of the global travel advisory for Americans. In a statement, it said “with health and safety conditions improving in some countries and potentially deteriorating in others” it will go back to “our previous system of country-specific levels of travel advice (with Levels from 1-4 depending on country-specific conditions).” What we need right now is a favourable revision of the travel advisory to boost the process of creating a positive sentiment for travel, which will gradually put in motion revival for the inbound tourism industry.
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The USA removed its “Do Not Travel” Global Health Advisory for Americans across many countries. But it retained this for India. The country-specific advisory remained “Level 4: Do Not Travel”. In an updated advisory the state department said: “Do not travel to India due to COVID-19.” There were two reasons given for this. The first one is that the risk of getting infected by a coronavirus is higher in India. And the second reason is that if a person gets coronavirus then the medical care and resources in India to tackle this situation is limited.
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Americans Barred From All Non-Essential Travel To India As Risk Of Contracting COVID-19 Is Higher There & Resources Remain Limited
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guides the state department revision in the USA. It states on its updated travel webpage that American must avoid “all non-essential travel” to India. They stated that the risk of contracting coronavirus is high in India. Moreover “if you get sick in India and need medical care, resources may be limited.” However, India also announced to resume its cruise services from October.
However CDC framed the warning differently during an interactive cartographic representation of its assessment on the pandemic. It stated- “If you get sick in India and need medical care, healthcare resources may be overwhelmed.” Karin King, deputy assistant secretary for overseas citizen services said that this advisory can change. She states to news reporters “CDC continues to monitor every country in the world, and as they identify that a country is either improving or that a country may be going in the other direction, they will let us know and we will, in turn, make the adjustment,”
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The USA Has 4.9 Million COVID-19 Infections & India Has 1.9 Million Infections
Interestingly, out of more than 19 million COVID-19 infections, nearly a fifth, close to 4.9 million are in the USA. This is followed by Brazil with 2.9 million and India with 1.9 million according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. And out of the 713,406 global fatalities, nearly a fifth again by the same count, over 1,60,000 were in the USA. Brazil was next with 98,000 deaths and India remained fifth with 40,699. India continues to work hard to eradicate coronavirus. On that note, check out this selfless Mumbai nurse’s story.