Important move to note; India suspends tourist visas due to coronavirus outbreak
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New Delhi, March 12: In the wake of novel coronavirus which has been now declared as a pandemic by the World Health Organization, the Modi Government has decided to suspend all tourist visas till April 15. The suspension is slated to come into effect from March 13 noon at the port of departure.
The decision was taken at the sixth meeting of a group of ministers held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. It has been announced that all existing visas, except diplomatic, official, International organizations, employment and project visas will be suspended till April 15, 2020. The visa-free travel facility granted to OCI cardholders, too, is kept under suspension till April 15. The government has undertaken preventive measures and actions in this meeting due to this coronavirus outbreak.
They have stated, any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason shall contact the nearest Indian Mission. However, any incoming travelers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or who have visited China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain, and Germany after 15th February should be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days. They have advised avoiding any kind of non-essential travel.
Following decisions have been taken by High Level Group of Ministers constituted to contain the spread of #coronavirus in India.
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) March 11, 2020
In addition to these measures, we are using all speed, scale & determination coupled with best practices to push back #COVID19#CoronaVirusUpdate
It all came because of the increasing cases of COVID-19 in India. For now, there are now 60 positive cases of COVID-19 in the country (including the 3 cases from Kerala discharged earlier). 10 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported since yesterday’s update. Among these, 8 cases are from Kerala, one (1) from Rajasthan and one (1) from Delhi.
India has also taken precautions while evacuating Indian citizens and other nationals from several countries due to the COVID-19 outbreak. They have set up quarantines for the observations. So far, it has evacuated 948 passengers from COVID-19 affected countries. Out of these, 900 are Indian citizens and 48 belonging to different nationalities including Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, USA, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, and Peru. Earlier, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has said the number of cases and deaths are likely to rise in the coming days and weeks.