India’s government will temporarily suspend all tourist visas, barring a selected few categories, until April 15, in a bid to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Tourists will be ineligible to enter India from March 13, at the port of departure.
Diplomatic visas and visas for international organizations, employment and projects are exempt from India’s entry ban.
According to India’s government, Indian travellers arriving from seven countries, that are profoundly affected by a coronavirus, will be isolated for 14 days, VisaGuide.World reports.
“All travellers, including Indian national arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 will be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days,” the statement asserts.
The announcement of the World Health Organization called the SARS-CoV2 outbreak a pandemic pushed India to tighten control by taking further steps.
“All visas and e-visas granted to French, German and Spanish nationals before Wednesday and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect. Italian, Iranian, South Korean and Japanese nationals who have visas issued before March 3 who have not yet entered India remain suspended,” India’s Bureau of Immigration announced through a statement.
This decision follows a previous one, through which India had decided to suspend entry for the four most affected countries by the COVID-19 at the beginning of March, which affected the citizens of Italy, Iran, South Korea, and Japan.
So far, in India 108 persons are infected by the deadly virus, while two people have died. Ten of the infected persons have totally recovered.
India reported the first death from coronavirus last Thursday. As a result, the authorities ordered to close schools, theatres and cinemas in New Delhi for the rest of the month, as a preventive measure to keep the pandemic under control.
As of March 15, there have been 163,080 confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, with 6,085 deaths and 76,219 recovered cases.
The most affected country continues to be China, with 80,849 cases, followed by Italy (21,157), Iran (13,938), South Korea (8,162), Spain (7,753), Germany (5,426), France (4,499) and the USA (3,094).