India is among several nations currently facing a travel ban from China. (Representational)
The government has given no direction to stop flying in Chinese nationals into the country, various airlines said today, denying reports about an informal instruction. Airlines operators told NDTV that they are still boarding Chinese nationals.
Sources in Air India told NDTV that they still boarding all passengers, including the Chinese.
India is among several nations currently facing a travel ban from China in view of coronavirus. The order was issued in early November and in the backdrop of the prickly relations between the two nations, the Chinese embassy in New Delhi had made it clear that the suspension is a temporary measure adopted to deal with the pandemic.
Besides India, similar restrictions were placed on travelers from the UK, France, Belgium, Bangladesh and the Philippines.
"China will make further adjustment and announcement in accordance with the ongoing pandemic situation in a timely manner," the embassy had said.
China, where the virus originated late last year, has managed to bring it under control, shutting all incoming traffic from other nations back in March and applying stringent safety measures.
India is the world's second most-infected nation after the United States. The total number of positives so far is 1,02,07,871, but the daily surge has been brought down to around 20,000 from a peak of 97,000.
Over the last 24 hours, the number of COVID-19 cases jumped 6.88 per cent to touch 20,021. The number of fresh fatalities, 279, remained the same as yesterday, according to data from the Union Health ministry. The overall death count since the outbreak started in January is 1,47,901.
Four states -- Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Gujarat and Assam started a two-day dry run for coronavirus vaccine programme today, with special focus on management of possible adverse events after immunisation.
The government plans to cover 30 crore people in the first phase when it rolls out Covid vaccine.