Nepal Suspends ‘Arrival Visa’ for 8 Nations

Kathmandu: Nepal government has decided to suspend ‘visa on arrival‘ for citizens of China, Iran, Italy, South Korea, Japan, France, Germany and Spain that have been affected by lethal epidemic Coronavirus with effective from March 10.

The nationals of these countries in case of urgency can apply for a visa to visit Nepal at the Nepali embassies located in their respective countries after clearing all the procedures of medical checks up for coronavirus disease.

It is mandatory for these eight-country nationals to submit a recently issued health certificate (maximum seven days earlier before arriving in Nepal) certifying that they are not infected by Coronavirus, along with their Visa application, the government sources said.

The lethal epidemic Coronavirus known as COVID-19 which spread from mainland China has already claimed the lives of over 4,000 people globally with maximum deaths in China only and around 113,000 people (in more than 100 countries) being infected around the world by now.

COVID-19 has insidiously affected tourism worldwide, including Nepal. Uncertainty still looms large over Nepal as World Health Organizations (WHO) declared Nepal to be one of the high-risk countries for COVID-19 and Nepal continues to scramble for preventive measures with limited resources.

Meanwhile, the government has also suspended all the entry points through the land to prevent the rapid spread of the fatal epidemic COVID-19.