Published 18:51 IST, November 5th 2020
China temporarily suspends Indians' entry into China citing 'current COVID pandemic'
As Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases steadily fall in India, the Chinese Embassy in India, announced that it has temporarily suspended Indians' entry into China.
As Coronavirus (COVID-19) cases steadily fall in India, the Chinese Embassy in India, announced that it has temporarily suspended Indians' entry into China. Indians with valid Chinese visas or residence permits will not receive stamped Health Declaration Forms by the Chinese embassy in India. However, foreigners holding Chinese diplomatic, service, courtesy, and C visas are not affected and visas issued after November 3rd, 2020 too won't be affected. This move occurs ahead of India-China's 8th round of military talks over border tensions.
China temporarily suspends Indians' entry
19 Air India passengers test COVID+ve in Wuhan
On Monday, nineteen passengers of Air India's 'Vande Bharat' flight to Wuhan were found to be COVID-19 positive by Chinese officials at the Wuhan Airport in China. Air India while issuing an official statement said that all passengers who had boarded the flight had gone through mandatory COVID testing and had only been allowed to board after they showed their COVID negative certificates. As per the Chinese authorities, all 19 passengers have been immediately transferred to a local hospital, and would only be allowed to leave once they test negative for the virus. India has previously flown five flights to Shanghai, Guangzhou and Ningbo.
India's COVID cases fall
The number of active cases of COVID-19 has been less than 6 lakh for seven consecutive days with 27 states and UTs having less than 20,000 active cases, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. The declining trend of the active cases is complemented by the unbroken increase, the day on day number of recovered cases, the ministry said. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 83,64,086 and the death toll climbed to 1,24,315 with the novel coronavirus virus claiming 704 lives in a span of 24 hours in the country.
India had first banned all travel to Wuhan - where the virus was first discovered in early January. India evacuated around 650 of its citizens from China, along with seven Maldivians in February, before the nationwide 3-week lockdown was put in place. While China claims to have no new COVID cases, a second wave of cases has hit Europe - including UK, Germany and US - witnessing a steep increase in cases.
Updated 18:51 IST, November 5th 2020