Why is India not on the red list yet!

[Sunnyfreezesushi]

I have just been reading about the worrying Covid situation in India and the variant there. Why has the U.K. government not put India on the red list? It appears entirely political rather than health driven to me. Our government is going to make the same mistake again, aren’t they? I know Bojo is meant to go to Delhi and we have close political ties and probably lots of citizens travelling there and back, but it seems madness that that is still allowed with home quarantine. Unfair on Bangladesh and Pakistan too. That is what makes me think it is a political decision.
Or is the variant there more like ours? Or is it because we rely on vaccine import from
India?

UK not including India in red list because

1. Boris wants to have a trade deal with India
2. Priti Patel is more loyal to herself and India than UK. She has already received 2 awards from India (Jewels of Gujrat & Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards) and hoping to receive more.

Why can't he do the deal by video call?

Boris has cancelled his trip but India is still not on the red list.

This government doesn't know how to act proactively, they only do reactively. One of them said on the news that we don't know enough about the India variant but once they have data which shows it's more infectious/dangerous/vaccine resistant then of course they will take action. It's been the way throughout the pandemic and the reason they've handled it so badly.

It is not just Priti Patel - Rishi Sunak is married to the daughter of the 6th richest man in India. The cabinet ties with India are strong. Diplomatically, appropriate conversations should have been had weeks ago. It is not going to help India have a trade partner who is poorer because of a possible 3rd wave caused by a concerning variant. The prudent thing was to put India on the red list ages ago and India should understand. In India, schools have been closed since March 2020- in all likelihood we should be focussing on the countries that have handled Covid the best in the Asia Pacific for trade and controlling our own Corona problem.

Meanwhile, I live in Outer London and lots of people are flying their relatives in from
India. Happy for them personally, but it puts us at increased risk.

A single flight from Delhi to Hong Kong has so far led to 47 imported cases. All were required to do pre-departure testing and all were tested upon arrival. Yet, most of the cases were detected in hotel quarantine (most detected on day 12).

The U.K. would only ask someone on a flight from India to quarantine for 10 days so those day 12 cases would be out and about walking among us.

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