Iran to bar travelers from India over COVID-19 variant, officials say

Iran said on Saturday that it would bar travelers from India over a COVID-19 variant to avert its spread in the already stricken country.
Officials, however, did not say if any cases of the variant first identified in India in late March had been detected in Iran, the epicenter of the pandemic in the Middle East.
“The Indian coronavirus is a new threat we face,” President Hassan Rouhani said in remarks broadcast on state TV.
“The Indian virus is more dangerous than the English and Brazilian variants,” he added.