Wellington: New Zealand has suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for a period of two weeks following a high number of positive Covid cases arriving from India.

The move comes after New Zealand reported 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border out of which 17 were from India.

Shortly afterwards, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that the government is temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India.

The ban will come into effect on April 11 and will be in place until April 28.

New Zealand had successfully eliminated the virus within its borders, and has not reported any community transmission locally for about 40 days.

But the country is now reviewing its border settings as more Covid-19 positive people are arriving in New Zealand, majority being from India.

On the other hand, India is experiencing a deadly second wave of coronavirus with daily infections hitting new peaks.

The latest surge reported in India on Wednesday overtook Sunday’s record of 103,844 infections. Deaths rose by 630 in the past 24 hours, the highest since November, raising the total death toll in the country to 166,177 since the pandemic began.