(Image source from: darpanmagazine.com)

The government of India has imposed stringent travel curbs as it has suspended all the tourist visa in order to prevent the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus in the country, as said by the government in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, it has been said that all the existing visas, except the diplomatic, official, UN/international organizations, employment, project visas, would be suspended till the 15th of April of 2020 and the order is said to be come into effect from 1200 GMT on the 13th of March.

The decision of suspending the tourist visas has been taken at a meeting of a group of ministers which was held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Harsh Vardhan who is the Health Minister and the meeting included Hardeep Puri who is the aviation minister, S Jaishankar who is the foreign minister and also a committee of secretaries chaired by secretary of the cabinet.

The facility of visa- free travel which has been granted to the OCI card holders is also kept in abeyance till the 15th of April.

The statement that has been released has also said that any foreign who intends to travel to India for any compelling reason may have to contact the nearest Indian Mission and that all the travelers coming to India which also includes the nationalities of India who have visited or are coming from China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after the 15th of February would have to undergo the quarantine period for a minimum period of two weeks.

The Health Ministry has advised the Indian nationals to avoid the non- essential travel to overseas and they have been told that a quarantine period of minimum two weeks would have to be undergone after they return to the country India.

This move has been taken by the government of India after the World Health Organization has classified the outbreak of the deadly novel coronavirus as global public health emergency on the 30th of January.

The coronavirus which has been officially named as COVID- 19 has been spreading across 114 countries with 126,380 confirmed cases of people being infected by the deadly novel COVID-19 and the deaths that have been caused due to being infected by the virus has increased to 4,634 in number until now.

The number of people infected with the deadly novel COVID- 19 in India has been recorded as 73 until now with no confirmed deaths that have caused by being infected by the virus.

By Shrithika Kushangi