Coronavirus: India bars entry of foreigners who visited China recently

As the sitution becomes grim over the novel-Coronavirus outbreak, the Bureau of Immigration has said that foreign national who have visited China on or before January 15 will not be allowed entry into India. The move follows similar decision by Australia, Singapore, US and a few other countries as China imposes travel ban.  

According to the bureau, foreigners who visited China on or after January 15 will not be allowed by air, sea or through land borders. Airline crew however are exempted from this rule.

Chinese citizens and foreigners living in China have already been restricted from travelling to India. Indian and Chinese carriers too are suspending flights between the two countries following the travel curbs. These restrictions are however not applicable to Chinese passport holders of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Passengers from China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand are being screened by health officials at airports. According to instructions from civil aviation ministry, passengers will be screened the moment they step out of the aerobridge and will proceed for immigration after receiving clearance from health officials.

Coronavirus has claimed over 563 lives till Thursday and number of confirmed cases has risen to over 28,000. Three confirmed cases have been reported in Kerala.