The question reached the Indian Embassy in Beijing again and again: could Chinese citizens, and other foreigners who lived in China or had just been there, still use the visas already stamped in their passports? On Tuesday, 4 February 2020, the embassy gave its answer. “It is clarified that existing visas are no longer valid.”
The Press Information Bureau repeated the point the next day in a statement that also covered e-visas already issued. Anyone intending to visit India now had to apply again, through the embassy in Beijing or the consulates in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Indian Visa Application Centres in those cities were also named as a point of contact. The rule covered Chinese nationals and foreigners who had been in China in the previous two weeks.
A second tightening in two days
This was a step on from the previous one. On 2 February India had temporarily suspended its e-visa facility for Chinese travellers and for foreigners living in China, because of the outbreak in Wuhan. Now the visas those travellers already held were cancelled as well.
The numbers behind the decision were climbing. Chinese health authorities said on Tuesday that the death toll had reached 425, with 64 deaths reported on Monday alone, and that 20,438 people had been infected. The World Health Organization’s latest situation report put the global count at up to 20,630 infections, 20,471 of them in China, with one death confirmed outside the country. The virus had spread to more than 25 countries.
India itself had reported three cases. All three patients, from Kerala, had recently returned from Wuhan, and The Hindu BusinessLine reported that all three were stable.
People already in India
The embassy’s notice also addressed those already inside the country. Anyone in India on a regular visa or an e-visa who had travelled from China after 15 January was asked to call the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare hotline or email its coronavirus address.
The wider advice was blunt. The government statement said people were advised to refrain from travelling to China and that any person travelling from China would be quarantined. The embassy in China stayed reachable around the clock on two hotline numbers and by email for Indian nationals who needed help.
Evacuation was already under way. In Manesar, near Delhi, 647 Indians and seven Maldivians brought out of Wuhan and Hubei province were spending 14 days in quarantine at a medical camp. On Wednesday the Cabinet Secretary held a high-level meeting with the Secretaries of Health and Family Welfare, External Affairs, Civil Aviation and Pharmaceuticals, among other officials, to review the steps taken to contain the virus and how ready the states were.
Sources
- Coronavirus: India cancels valid visas to Chinese, foreigners who visited China in last two weeks (The Economic Times / PTI)
- Coronavirus: Visas issued for those travelling from China now invalid (The Hindu BusinessLine)
