Scenes outside a quarantine facility in Manesar by the Army. A total of 248 people, who were evacuated from China, were discharged from the facility, with all of them testing negative for coronavirus on February 18, 2020. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav.)
With the number of coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in India rising to six, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Tuesday announced that all regular visas/e-visas granted to nationals belonging to Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan remain suspended with immediate effect.
“All regular (sticker) visas/e-visa (including VoA for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and issued on or before 03.03.2020 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect,” the MHA said in a statement.
Previously, the MHA had suspended visa/e-visa issued to Chinese nationals on or before 05.02.2020. China, the epicentre of the outbreak, has reported over 2,940 deaths with over 80,000 cases.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, earlier in the day, held an extensive review on the preparedness for novel coronavirus. “Had an extensive review regarding preparedness on the COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus. Different ministries and states are working together, from screening people arriving in India to providing prompt medical attention,” he said in a tweet.
Sanitation workers disinfect a residential compound, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Bozhou, Anhui province, China February 18, 2020. (Photo source: China Daily via REUTERS)
The MHA also advised Indian nationals to refrain from travelling to these places and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19-affected countries.
It, however, exempted diplomats, United Nations officials, other international bodies, Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholders, the aircrew from the above-mentioned countries from such restriction on the entry. But their medical screening is compulsory, it added.
Two new cases of coronavirus—one in Delhi and other in Hyderabad— were detected on Monday. Both the patients, who are undergoing treatment and are “stable”, recently travelled to countries affected by COVID-19, officials said.
The patient in Delhi, who is currently in the isolation ward of Safdarjung Hospital, had travelled to Italy, which is one of the hardest-hit nations with 1,694 cases and 34 deaths. Officials said he had returned to Delhi on an Air India flight from Vienna on February 25. The patient in Hyderabad, on the other hand, had returned last week from Dubai, where 19 cases have been reported.
The new cases mark the first instance in the country of the virus being reported from outside Kerala, where three students returning from Wuhan, the Chinese city at the heart of the outbreak, were found to have been infected. All the three — the first case was reported on January 30 — have been discharged from hospitals after treatment.