“If, during screening, a passenger has very high temperature/symptoms of COVID-19 etc., he shall not be allowed to travel despite having confirmed tickets. In such case full refund shall be provided to the passenger,” the order stated.

On a group ticket if one passenger is found unfit to travel and all other passengers on the same PNR also do not want to travel, in that case full refund shall be granted for all passengers.

All tickets booked for regular passenger trains for travel on or before June 30 stands cancelled, Indian Railways has announced.

Shramik trains for migrants and special trains will however continue.

Passengers with tickets of regular trains which have been cancelled till June 30 will get full refund.

Subsequent to the Ministry of Home Affairs order regarding movement of migrant workers, pilgrims, tourists, students and other persons stranded at different places by special trains,Indian Railways had decided to operate “Shramik Special” trains.

As on 13th May 2020, a total of 642 “Shramik Special” trains have been operationalized from various states across the country. Around 7.90 Lacs passengers have reached their home State. Trains being run by Railways only after concurrence is given both by the State which is sending the passengers and the State which is receiving them.

These 642 trains were terminated in various states like Andhra Pradesh (3 Trains), Bihar (169 Trains), Chattisgarh (6 Trains), Himachal Pradesh (1 Train), Jammu & Kashmir (3 Trains), Jharkhand (40 Trains), Karnataka (1 Train), Madhya Pradesh (53 Trains), Maharashtra (3 Trains), Manipur (1 Train), Mizoram (1 Train), Odisha (38 Trains), Rajasthan(8 Trains), Tamil Nadu (1 Train), Telangana(1 Train), Tripura (1 Train), Uttar Pradesh (301 Trains), Uttarakhand (4 Trains), West Bengal(7 Trains).

Proper screening of passengers is ensured before boarding the train. During the journey, passengers are given free meals and water.

“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organizations, employment, project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020,” it said in the statement.

The order will come into effect from 1200 GMT on March 13.

The decision was taken at the meeting of group of ministers held here under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visas stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” the statement said.

Visa-free travel facility granted to OCI card holders is also kept in abeyance till April 15.

Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission, the release said, adding that all incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 will be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

Over 1,18,000 positive cases have been reported globally across 114 countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11 said that according to its assessment, COVID-19 “can be characterised as a pandemic.”

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak round-the-clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” it said.

“Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.