In an effort to contain the spread of the new COVID-19 variant from India, Srilanka on Thursday announced the decision to suspend all Indian travellers from entering the country.
The announcement comes as India is reeling under the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, CAASL Additional Director General P. A. Jayakantha said the restrictions were applied until further notice following the guidelines received by the Health Ministry until the next evaluation, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.
He said the CAASL has directed all airlines to prevent disembarking Indian passengers.
United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, Israel, Bangladesh, and many other countries have also suspended flights to and from India due to the second wave of the pandemic in the country.
India on Thursday recorded 4,12,262 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours taking the overall caseload to 2,10,77,410, according to data from the Union Health Ministry. This is the highest number of COVID-19 cases recorded in a single day.
This is the second time that the total number of COVID-19 cases crossed the 4 lakh mark.
The country’s active COVID-19 cases stand at 35,66,398.
With 3,980 deaths in the last 24 hours, the death toll is at 23,01,68. In the last 24 hours, 3,29,113 recovered, taking the number of recoveries to 1,72,80,844.