India will open borders to tourists as early as next week

After 18 months of border closures and punishing COVID-19 surges, India is ready to welcome its first international tourists starting October 15.

The Ministry of Home Affairs announced on Thursday it will begin issuing tourist visas to international visitors this month. Tourists traveling to India by chartered flight will be able to do so starting October 15, before other arrivals are permitted a month later on commercial flights, on November 15.

India was the first nation to be hit by a major COVID-19 surge driven by the Delta variant earlier this year, with the country recording more than 400,000 cases a day at its peak in spring, and hospitals overwhelmed with patients.

Fortunately, cases have decreased significantly since then and vaccination rates have increased. On Thursday, India celebrated a milestone in its vaccination campaign—the world's largest—with the Health Ministry announcing that 93 crore (930 million) doses have now been administered.

About 255 million people in India are now fully vaccinated, according to Oxford's Our World In Data—which represents 18.4% out of a population of 1.38 billion.