In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, all travellers including Indian citizens from European Union, European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom will no longer be allowed to fly into India from March 18, 2020, the Union Health Ministry has announced. No airline is to board passengers from these countries from the given date.
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland are part of the European Free Trade Association, and 27 countries are part of the European Union.
The Centre has also extended the compulsory 14-day quarantine period for passengers coming from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Oman and Qatar as well. This too will come into effect from March 18, 12 noon, at the port of first departure.
Both of these measures will remain in place till March 31, 2020, and then will be reviewed.
This comes after the Union government suspended all existing visas, barring a few from March 13 to April 15. The only exceptions were given to diplomatic, employment, project, official or international organisation visas. It also cancelled the entry of those who hold Overseas Citizen of India cards.
Prior to Monday’s announcements, those who visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15, or are arriving from these countries were to be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days after their arrival to India. In February, India had barred entry of Chinese nationals on regular and eVisas into the country following the outbreak of coronavirus.
India has 129 confirmed cases of coronavirus in the country. Several services such as gyms, malls, movie theatres, beaches etc have been shut, and people have been advised to refrain from large public gatherings, organising parties, and big wedding functions.
Globally, the coronavirus pandemic has caused over 6,600 deaths and has affected over 1.7 lakh people.