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Travel ban may be extended to more countries
Contingency plans have been drawn up to restrict the issue of visas to foreign visitors from more countries, and they will be implemented if the coronavirus pandemic worsens, a senior official said.
He said the decision was taken at a meeting presided over by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and attended by top officials, including those from the Immigration and Health sectors.
The move came despite the Government continuing to allow the Chinese to enter the country without a quarantine process. More than 1,400 Chinese have come to Sri Lanka in the past two weeks.
Some officials had pointed out it might be necessary to increase the number of countries from which travel would be restricted.
On Friday, the Government decided to ban visitors from France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Sweden and Austria.
Earlier, such a ban was imposed on visitors from South Korea, Iran and Italy.The senior official said the President had agreed to implement the contingency plan of restricting visits from other countries depending on the threat assessment there. This could be for a short period or a prolonged period. At the meeting they also discussed the plight of some foreigners whose visas were expiring but were not in a position to travel back to their countries due to the suspension of flights. It was decided to extend their visas for a short period, but after that they would have to go to another country if they were not able to return to their home countries.
The official said some of the foreigners were stranded in Sri Lanka as they were on transit and unable to find flights to their destinations due to the cancellation of flights.
It was decided to screen the tourists and issue visas for them to stay in the country. During the past two weeks, there were 1,427 people who came from Italy, 1,405 from China, 107 from South Korea and 25 from Iran.