India shuts doors for outsiders until 15 April
In order to grapple with the humongous scale in which the cases of Coronavirus are being reported around the world, India is under a self-imposed quarantine and has shut doors for outsiders. This comes at a time when the pandemic has claimed 4,291 lives in 114 countries, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Covid-19 outbreak a pandemic, & India’s count of infected people is at 62 with no confirmed deaths so far from the disease. Late on Wednesday, the government suspended “all existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organisations, employment, project visas” w.e.f. at 1200 GMT on March 13 until April 15. The visafree travel facility for Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) holders has been suspended until 15th April.
However, any foreign national (including holders of medical visas) who needs to travel to India urgently will have to contact the nearest Indian mission. The health ministry has also advised Indian nationals to avoid all non-essential overseas travel. It also mandated a 14-day quarantine for all those persons who have arrived from or have visited China, Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15.
