Maldives bans Indian tourists from visiting inhabited islands amid COVID spike

By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 27, 2021, 3:53 PM IST

The suspension on travellers from India will be in effect from today.The Ministry of Tourism of Maldives announced a suspension on travel of tourists from India to inhabited islands on April 25.

India is witnessing the worst phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, as the country is reporting over three lakh cases every day. Many countries, including Germany, Italy, Iran, Singapore and Bangladesh, have restricted entry of travellers from India with immediate effect given the Covid situation. The Maldives is the latest on the list.

The Maldivian government has announced a travel ban on tourists from India from April 27. The Ministry of Tourism of Maldives announced a suspension on travel of tourists from India to inhabited islands on April 25.

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The tweet read, “With effect from 27 April @HPA_mv suspends tourists travelling from #India to #Maldives from staying at tourist facilities in inhabited islands. We thank you for the support in our endeavour to make tourism safest possible with minimum inconvenience (sic).”

The Great Escape to the islands became quite a norm since last year. From Bollywood couples to the newlyweds, they went to take refuge in the beautiful sea-facing resorts in order to relax and flood the internet with some 'quarantine goals' and 'wanderlust' kind of content.

So, once the new travel directive came from the government of the Maldives, Twitter rejoiced and we witnessed a meme fest.

While the memes are amusing, there's one thing that everyone missed. The Ministry of Tourism has restricted travellers from staying at facilities and budget hotels in the inhabited islands. So, this restriction would affect only those who would have visited these islands.

However, Bollywood celebrities, who treat the beach destination as their go-to paradise or how Twitter users put it, 'nani ka ghar', do not stay at the inhabited island. Their stay is often on the uninhabited islands that have one dedicated resort. And therefore, the new rule will hardly affect their travel plans irrespective of the pandemic.

NOTE: Asianet News humbly requests everyone to wear masks, sanitize, maintain social distancing and get vaccinated as soon as eligible. Together we can and will break the chain #ANCares #IndiaFightsCorona

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