EU countries urged to halt non-essential travel from India

BRUSSELS: The European Union's executive on Wednesday called on countries of the bloc to temporarily halt non-essential travel from India, to limit the spread of a COVID-19 variant.

The European Commission said its proposal followed the World Health Organisation's proposal on Monday to reclassify the B.1.617.2 variant of COVID-19 found in India as a "variant of concern", raising the alert from a "variant of interest". EU countries should apply an "emergency brake" on non-essential travel from India, it said in a statement.