As coronavirus cases rise, Centre reviews situation and arrangements for evacuees

Dr P K Mishra, the Principal Secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Monday (February 3) reviewed the situation relating to the coronavirus in the country and the arrangements for the approximately 600 people who have been brought from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The review meeting was attended by National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, Principal Adviser to the Prime Minister P K Sinha, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat and secretaries of other relevant ministries.

On the directions of PM Modi, a high-level Group of Ministers is constituted comprising of Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Hardeep Puri, Minister of Civil Aviation, S Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister, Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home, Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State, Health & Family Welfare and Mansukh Lal Mandaviya, Minister of State, Shipping to review, monitor and evaluate the preparedness regarding management of Novel Coronavirus in the country.

The first meeting of GoM was held at Nirman Bhawan on Monday to review the preparedness and steps taken by the Ministries of Health, Shipping, External Affairs, Civil Aviation and Home Affairs. During the meeting a presentation of the status of the coronavirus outbreak was made to the GoM and the ministers were also apprised of the three cases reported from Kerala, two of which have been confirmed positive so far.

It is to be noted that the Centre has also revised the travel advisory informing the public to refrain from travel to China and that anyone with travel history in China since January 15, 2020 and from now on could be quarantined. 

The Centre has also temporarily suspended the e-Visa facility for Chinese passport holders and e-Visa already issued to Chinese nationals is also not valid temporarily and the facility for submitting the application online for the physical visa from China is suspended. It has been advised that people having compelling reasons to visit India should contact the Indian embassy in Beijing or consulate in Shanghai or Guangzhou. Instructions to comply with above travel advisory have also been issued to all national and international airlines operating from China by the Ministry of Civil Aviation.