The Haryana Health Department has identified several students who travelled from China to India via ‘alternative’ routes, without notifying the government.

According to a Dainik Bhaskar  report, the government identified a medical student from China who had travelled to India only after he approached professionals at PGIMS, Rohtak, with symptoms such as cough, fever and body ache. The doctors suspected the symptoms to be those of the novel coronavirus. The student later admitted to have travelled home from China via Bangkok due to fears of being detained as a result of the travel ban, a  Business Standard  report said. He had reached Delhi on January 28.

The student has since been quarantined and his samples have been sent to AIIMS, Delhi, for examination. The results will be available in three days.

The authorities have identified 15 such people, who travelled to India via alternative routes without notifying the authorities, according to the report. 

The government rescued more than 600 Indian nationals from Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, earlier this month.

 

Visas declared void

In a new travel advisory,the Centre has declared existing visas of any foreign national travelling from China as void. This includes all e-visas that have already been issued, the government said in a statement issued by the Press Information Bureau .

Potential visitors must apply for fresh visas from the Indian embassy in Beijing or the consulates in Shanghai or Guangzhou, according to the statement.

The Ministry of Health had issued a statement earlier this month that said that any citizen with a travel history to China from January 15 could be quarantined.

The death toll in China’s novel coronavirus outbreak had reached 563 on Wednesday, with over 28,000 confirmed cases of the virus, according to media reports.