Colombo, May 6 (IANS): The Civil Aviation Authority of Sri Lanka (CAASL) on Thursday announced its decision to suspend all Indian travellers from entering the country with immediate effect in an effort to curb the spread of the Indian Covid-19 variant.

In a statement, CAASL Additional Director General P. A. Jayakantha said the restrictions were applied until further notice following the guidelines received by the Health Ministry until the next evaluation, reports the Daily Mirror newspaper.

He said the CAASL have directed all airlines to preventing disembarking Indian passengers.

The announcement comes as India is struggling to battle a second deadlier wave of the pandemic.

As of Thursday, India's overall Covid-19 caseload and death toll stood at 2,10,77,410 and 2,30,168, respectively.

It has been 15 straight days that India has recorded more than three lakh cases daily, while the casualties have been over 3,000 deaths for nine consecutive days.