As the United Kingdom is been caught up with the fresh ordeal over the emergence of a new COVID-19 variant, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has on Tuesday canceled his upcoming state visit to India. His office has confirmed that he has canceled the visit. 

Boris Johnson was scheduled to be the Chief Guest for the upcoming Republic Day celebration in India and he was keenly expecting to unfold his first visit to India as the British Prime Minister and the Indian government had also been preparing to give a grandeur welcome to the visiting leader. However, the origination of the COVID-19 variant in the UK has now pushed Boris Johnson to cancel the Indian visit. When he was called to India for its Republic Day event, Boris Johnson said that he was absolutely delighted to visit India. 

On Tuesday, 10 Downing Street has issued an official statement in which it has said that the British Prime Minister spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday morning and expressed his regret that he will be unable to visit India later this month as planned. It further highlighted, "In the light of the national lockdown announced last night, and the speed at which the new coronavirus variant is spreading, the Prime Minister said that it was important for him to remain in the UK so he can focus on the domestic response to the virus". 

The Prime Minister's Office said that during the conversation between Boris Johnson and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, both the leaders had reiterated their shared commitment to the bilateral relationship, and to continuing to build on the close collaboration between both the countries, including the response to the pandemic. 

10 Downing Street said, "The British Prime Minister hopes to be able to visit India in the first half of 2021, and ahead of the UK's G7 summit that Prime Minister Modi is due to attend as a guest". The United Kingdom has emerged as the global epicenter for the origination the new variant of the novel coronavirus. The British government had admitted that the spread of the new variant is faster than the COVID-19 and the variant is 70% transmissible. 

The government said that the spread is getting out of control and it has called lockdown to help contain the spread amid the hope of having a potential breakthrough in its vaccination drive. Boris Johnson has canceled his visit a day after imposing the third phase of the complete lockdown. The lockdown has come into effect and will be in place in England until at least mid-February to combat the variant. 

In his televised address, he announced the lockdown and said that the country is at a critical moment, with cases rising rapidly in every part of its territory. He said, "As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time. It's clear that we need to do more together to bring this new variant under control. In England, we must therefore go into a national lockdown which is tough enough to combat this variant. That means the government is once again instructing you to stay at home".

Earlier, the spokesperson of Downing street said that the spread of the new variant of COVID-19 has led to rapidly escalating case numbers across the country. The Prime Minister is clear that further steps must now be taken to arrest this rise and to protest the NHS and save lives. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that this new variant is much easier to catch, it is much more transmissible, and the country is now seeing the effect of that in lots of different parts of the country.