Coronavirus: India temporarily suspends e-visa facility for people in China

Apr 11: India has sent back 20,473 foreigners who wanted to return to their countries following the Covid-19 global pandemic, it was revealed on Friday (April 10).

"So far, we have successfully evacuated 20,473 foreign nationals as of yesterday. This is an ongoing process," said Dammu Ravi, Coordinator on Covid-19 issues at the Ministry of External Affairs, MEA.

"This involves several countries," Ravi said during the daily government briefing on Covid-19, although he could not list the countries offhand. "We are receiving excellent cooperation from governments all over the world for this process."

Many foreigners, especially tourists, were stranded in India when domestic and international flights were abruptly cancelled last month in a bid to curb transmission of the coronavirus.

The Ministry of Tourism has asked stranded foreigners to get in touch with the government through a special portal started for the purpose, through their embassies in India and other sources to facilitate their evacuation if they wished to head home.

As of Friday evening, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had confirmed 6,761 Covid-19 cases in India, of whom 515 patients have been cured.

There were 206 deaths reported from across the country.

Two states, Punjab and Orissa, have extended the ongoing lockdown until April 30.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will consult state chief ministers on Saturday to decide whether to extend the country-wide lockdown, which is due to end at midnight on April 14.

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 30: Kerala reported 32

fresh cases of coronavirus on Monday, with the worst affected Kasaragod district alone accounting for 17 cases.

Kannur reported 15 cases, while Wayanad and Idukki reported two each, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters here after a COVID-19 review meeting.

Of the 32 cases, 17 had come from abroad and 15 had been infected through contact.

A total of 213 people are presently under treatment in Kerala.

At least 1.50 lakh people are under surveillance in the state and 623 are in isolation wards of various hospitals.

New Delhi, Jun 6: Bookings for select destinations in the USA, Canada, UK and Europe etc under Phase3 of Mission Vande Bharat opened at 5 pm on Friday, according to Air India.

"#FlyAI: Bookings for select destinations in USA, Canada, UK & Europe etc under Phase3 of #MissionVandeBharat opened at 5pm today. Around 60 million hits received till 7pm on our website & 1700 seats sold through website alone in 2 hrs. Bookings continue & tickets are being issued," the national carrier said in a tweet on Friday.

The third phase of the mission will begin from June 11 and continue till June 30.

Air India will operate five flights in the third phase of Vande Bharat Mission to evacuate almost 1,200 Indians nationals stranded in the United Kingdom between June 18 to June 23.

Air India will operate 70 flights in the third phase of Mission Vande Bharat to evacuate Indians stranded in the US and Canada between June 11 to June 30, Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said.