Delta variant's terror spreads. US changes travel policy with India.

This post is a simple update on the global COVID situation.

A recent update from New York has mentioned that about 83% (estimated) of the COVID cases in the United States are of the Delta variant. The Delta variant is a mutated version of the original COVID virus. This variant was earlier detected in India and now is found across the globe. The variant is stronger and spreads faster in comparison to the others.

United States government is advising citizens to not travel to the UK as the nation is lifting its lockdown to curb its deepest recession in the last 300 years.

Simultaneously, the US has eased up travel restrictions with India. The US originally put India at Level 4, which is a level of travel restriction placed by the US banning all mass travelling reasons (allowing only specific visa holders to fly). However, due to decreasing COVID cases in India, the US government has brought India down to Level 3 regarding its travel restrictions. Level 3 essentially "advises against travelling", compared to an outright ban faced at Level 4. Anyhow, this does not mean that regular tourism is allowed; it just means that the US government is now moving towards/considering easing up travel between the two countries.

On the other side of the globe, half of Australia is under lockdown now. Recently Southern Australia joined New South Wales and Victoria in ordering its residents to stay at home. This lockdown/curfew across the South-East region of Australia will hamper economic recovery, projected to contract the Australian economy by 0.7% this quarter. However, it is a preventive measure to ensure that no new cases are seeding off of the new COVID positive travellers entering Australia.