Coronavirus: Nepal government announces temporary suspension of on-arrival visa

  • March 2, 2020

A woman covering her face walks near the area where Nepalese evacuated from coronavirus-stricken Chinese city of Wuhan are kept for quarantine in Bhaktapur, Nepal February 17, 2020. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar

With the rapid spread of coronavirus across the globe, the government today announced suspension of on-arrival visa for citizens of China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan from March 7 to March 31.

Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) took a decision to this effect today after consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The decision comes a day after the meeting of Council of Ministers instructed the government agencies including MoHA to take measures in a bid to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus.

Yesterday, a meeting of a high-level government task-force formed to prevent the outbreak of coronavirus made the similar decision while suggesting the government agencies to take precautionary measures against COVID-19.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Ishwar Pokharel.

Similarly, the Supreme Court has issued an interim order to the government instructing it to adopt emergency measures to prevent the outbreak of the virus.

Hearing a writ filed by advocate Purna Rajbanshi, a single bench of Justice Tej Bahadur KC gave the order today.