London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Sep 17, 2025

Covid: Why was India not already on the red list?

Covid: Why was India not already on the red list?

India will be added to the government's travel-ban red list from Friday 23 April.

It came after Boris Johnson cancelled his planned trip to the country because of the Covid situation there.

India has been reporting more than 200,000 cases daily since 15 April.

But Pakistan and Bangladesh have both been on the red list since 9 April.

What is the red list?


The red list is the government's list of 40 countries from which there are strict restrictions on travel to England.

Northern Ireland has similar rules in place, while Scotland's are stricter and Wales does not currently have international flights arriving.

The rules are designed to protect the UK from new variants of Covid, against which existing vaccines may be less effective.

Travel to England is banned for anyone who has been in one of the countries in the past 10 days, except for UK citizens and residents, who have to isolate on arrival at government-approved hotels for 10 days.

What are the criteria for going on the red list?


The decision is based on Joint Biosecurity Centre risk assessments, which include:

*  how good a country's testing structures are, including checking for variants of concern

*  how many cases those systems have identified

*  whether people in that country have been catching new variants at home or the cases have come from overseas

*  evidence of whether that country has exported cases of new variants to other countries, including to the UK

*  how good the country's travel links with the UK are

The first point on the list is particularly important, because the genome sequencing needed to identify new variants is very sophisticated and relatively rare.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the House of Commons on 9 February it was also important whether "a variant of concern is the dominant variant", adding the list was kept "under review".

Why were Pakistan and Bangladesh put on the red list before India?


Few cases of the South Africa variant found in the UK have come from Europe, according to the Department for Transport, with most coming from other parts of the world.

But just because a country has found new variants, or has many cases of coronavirus, it will not necessarily be on the red list.

On 13 April, the World Health Organization identified:

*  82 countries where the variant identified in South Africa had been found, of which only 21 were on the red list

*  52 countries with the variant identified in Brazil, of which 14 were on the red list

Bangladesh, which had the South Africa but not the Brazil variant, and Pakistan, which had neither, were added to the red list on 9 April.

But India, which had both, was not added for another two weeks.


We asked the government why it wasn't added before but have not yet had a response.

"Nobody knows the full criteria - but there may be a political element because the UK wants a trade deal with India," Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology, at the University of Reading, said.

"It's not always a data-driven decision," he added, giving the example of Somalia, which is on the red list but has one of the lowest official rates of infection and deaths in the world.

On 9 April:

*  Pakistan had a seven-day average of 21 cases per million people

*  Bangladesh had twice as many

*  India had four times as many


All three countries were seeing coronavirus cases rise.

But the government says its travel bans are more about the transmission of variants of concern and a country's ability to monitor them.

In late March, India's health authority said 771 variants of concern had been detected in a sample of almost 11,000 positive cases - a fraction of the millions of cases recorded in the country.

But India has a greater sequencing ability than Pakistan or Bangladesh, although it is far behind the UK, which does about half of the world's sequencing.

Announcing the decision to add India to the red list, Mr Hancock said the government had found 103 cases of a new variant - first identified in India.

He said: "the vast majority have links to international travel and have been picked up by our testing at the border".

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
×