The Arunachal Pradesh government has decided to temporarily suspend issuing Protected Area Permits (PAPs) to foreigners to check the spread of coronavirus in the state.

In Arunachal Pradesh, foreigners need PAPs to enter the state that shares a border with China. Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar directed all PAP issuing authorities to suspend the issue of permits till further orders, according to news agency PTI.

“It is learnt that Covid-19 positive cases have been detected in India and the numbers have been increasing. It is also learnt that the spread of the coronavirus in India is primarily from visitors who had history of travelling abroad recently or through tourists who have visited India,” the government order reads.

“In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) in Arunachal Pradesh, it has been decided to temporarily suspend issuing Protected Area Permit (PAP)…,” it added.

Another northeastern state, Sikkim also announced similar curbs on visit of foreigners. The neighboring kingdom of Bhutan has also shut its borders to foreign visitors for two weeks in an effort to limit the impact of the coronavirus.

The global death toll due to COVID-19 coronavirus has reached to 3,586 people and infected more than 1,00,000 across 92 nations, including 39 people in India since the outbreak first emerged in China in December.

5 more people have been tested positive for coronavirus in Kerala. The  state health minister KK Shylaja said that 3 of the 5 people tested positive have a travel history from Italy and the other two are their family members who came in touch with them.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Saturday that a total of 21,114 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been reported by 93 countries and regions outside China – an increase of 3,633 infections from the previous day.

Meanwhile, China on Sunday reported 27 new deaths from coronavirus, the lowest number of fatalities in more than a month, taking the death toll to 3,097, while the COVID-19 infections for the first time fell below 50 since the disease surfaced in Hubei province in January.

(With inputs from PTI)