Over 81,000 visas issued in Wuhan have been suspended by the Government of Seoul, South Korea due to the coronavirus outbreak.
The decision of the South Korean Consulate General in Wuhan, China, came into force on February 4, at the time when Seoul banned from entering non-Korean travellers who came from the surrounding province of Hubei.
According to the Ministry of Justice, the total number of suspended visas is 81,589, since February 4, VisaGuide.World reports.
The majority of the suspended visas, 94.4 per cent, were short-term visas for tourism purposes.
“Following the entry ban for foreigners from Hubei, a total of 9,520 people has not been allowed to board flights bound for South Korea through a prior verification system and monitoring by airlines,” the Ministry of Justice pointed out in a statement.
The Ministry also announced that over 10,000 inquiry calls have been received by their foreigner information centre, in an attempt to regard some of the measures to restrain arrivals of non-Korean travellers.
The Ministry of Justice has also made known that is cooperating with the Korea Center for Disease and Control to fight the spread of the coronavirus infection.
“The justice ministry has been closely cooperating with the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on measures to fight the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” a ministry official said.
South Korea has tightened its controls for foreigners by banning entry into the southernmost island of Jeju without a visa.
The number of cases of coronavirus in South Korea reached 763 on Monday, compared to 31 cases that were previously reported, on February 18, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, pointing out that this statistic marks a jump nearly 25 times in the number of infections in less than a week.
So far, a huge number of states have restricted visa bans for China, in a bid to reduce the spreading of the virus and the risk of more infected persons.
Other Asian countries like Bangladesh, Vietnam, Singapore, and Philipines also have reported about their visa ban for Chinese’s visitors and the travellers who have recently been to China.
The United States has also introduced visa restriction for travellers from and to China at the very beginning of the month.
Australia and New Zealand, as well, a bid to prevent the infection spread, cancelled travel to China and barred from entering travellers coming from China.
By now, there are 79,691 cases of people who are infected by the coronavirus. The number of deaths has reached 2,625, while 25,159 infected people have been recovered.