New Delhi: The Union health ministry on Wednesday asked Indians to refrain from travelling to China where the novel coronavirus (nCoV) has claimed over 130 lives. A number of airlines are seeing heavy cancellations over the outbreak of nCoV in China, and on Wednesday, Air India and IndiGo announced cancellations of some of their flights to China.
While IndiGo said it has decided to suspend its flights on the Bengaluru-Hong Kong route from February 1 and on the Delhi-Chengdu route from February 1 to 20 due to the coronavirus outbreak, Air India said it will suspend flights on the Delhi-Shanghai route from January 31 to February 14.
Air India has six flights a week on the Delhi-Shanghai route and IndiGo has three daily flights to China. Both these airlines, along with SpiceJet, have waived ticket cancellation/rebooking charges till February 24.
“In view of the #CoronavirusOutbreak, SpiceJet is offering waiver of cancellation/change fee (fare difference if any will be applicable) for all flights to/from Hong Kong between 24 January and 24 February,” Spicejet tweeted.
In India, several people are under observation in hospitals for suspected infections, including in Maharashtra, Goa, Odisha and the national capital.
People returning from China are being screened for the virus at airports across the country.
