Myanmar government has decided to temporarily suspend entry visas, in a bid to mitigate the spreading of coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Foreign Ministry, visas will not be issued until April 31, except for diplomats, UN officials and aircraft operating to and from this country.
The Department of Civil Aviation announced that landing permissions, granted previously for citizens will also be considered invaluable, VisaGuide.World reports.
Since March 23, when the first coronavirus case was detected in Myanmar, the government began banning internationals from entering its land borders.
However, tens of thousands of migrants working in this country continued to enter from neighbour countries.
Amid coronavirus, Myanmar government has been criticized for the slow response to deal with the current situation, especially about the number of returnees.
The poor health infrastructure in Myanmar is considered as a concerning situation by health workers.
Last week, the government of Myanmar temporarily suspended the issuance of visas on arrival as well as e-visas for internationals, until April 30, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.
Myanmar also joined the list of countries that chose the border closure as one of the main measures to halt the spread of COVID-19.
“We will temporarily suspend the entry of foreign nationals through any border checkpoint until further notice,” Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced last week.
The Ministry, also revealed that the Indian border at Moreh-Tamu and Zokhawtar-Rekhawar has been temporarily closed. The Ministry said that the border checkpoints with China in Kachin State and northern Shan State, as well as those with Thailand and Laos, will be temporarily closed for non-residents.
So far, there have been detected 10 cases of coronavirus in this country. Up to 700,000 persons are infected with the virus all around the world, while the global death toll has reached 34,847.
The US has become the new epicentre of the disease with 142,793 persons infected, followed by Italy (97,689), Spain (85,195), and China (81,470).