Australia will suspend incoming flights from India until the middle of May as the country experiences a soaring outbreak of COVID-19.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said flights will be suspended immediately until at least May 15 to prevent transmission crossing borders.

Repatriation flights for Australians still in India are being organised.

Scott Morrison.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said flights will be suspended immediately until at least May 15 to prevent transmission crossing borders. (Nine)

A relief package will be sent from Australia to India, which includes more than 500 ventilators and more than a million surgical masks.

Mr Morrison said indirect flights from India have already been paused by key transit hubs such as Doha, meaning those flights won’t be coming into Australia as usual.

Restrictions on people in Australia being able to travel to India were already in place.

India COVID-19 crisis overwhelms nation with record infection numbers recorded daily

In the past 24 hours India has recorded 323,000 new COVID-19 cases and an additional 2,771 deaths.

Roughly 117 Indians are succumbing to the disease every hour, with many experts believing these figures are conservative.

India is second only to the United States for total COVID-19 infections at 17.3 million.

People queue up for COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India. (AP)

New Zealand has temporarily suspended travel from India after it received 17 positive cases in overseas travellers in early April.



This content first appear on 9news

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