India will be on the UK international travel red list from 04:00 BST on Friday.
Delhi begins week-long lockdown after a weekend curfew failed to halt record spike in cases overwhelming health services.
India has had over 200,000 cases a day since 15 April - with 1,620 new deaths reported on Sunday.
Health officials investigating whether India variant might spread more easily and evade vaccines.
103 cases of the variant have been found in the UK, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said.
UK PM Boris Johnson has cancelled his planned trip to India next week.
More than 10 million UK adults have had two doses of a vaccine.
UK records its lowest number of daily Covid deaths since 7 September - four - and 2,963 new confirmed cases.
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