Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Arindam Bagchi says there's a need to boost supplies with U-S imports.
"Government of India has been making all efforts to augment availability of vaccines in India, whether through enhanced production in the country or through supply from abroad. We remain engaged with U.S. vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson as part of this effort. We are separately also engaged with the US administration to ensure that necessary components and raw materials for vaccine manufacturing and production in India are readily available and that the supply chains remain open."
Britain has decided to remove Portugal from its quarantine-free travel list. Transport Minister Grant Shapps says it's in recognition of rising case numbers in Portugal and a desire not jeopardise a further easing of restrictions later this month.
The Egyptian government has completed the vaccination of all tourism workers in the Red Sea and South Sinai area. Egypt's economy is heavily reliant on tourism which accounts for some 12 per cent of gross domestic product. The Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled el-Enany, says the industry is recovering.
"Since the beginning of 2021 the industry is recovering in Egypt, we started the year, January with 300,000 tourists per month, we ended last April with 525,000 tourists per month, this represents around 50 per cent of our numbers before the pandemic."
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