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Kazakhstan to cut China transport links over coronavirus
NUR-SULTAN, Kazakhstan, Jan 29, 2020 (BSS/AFP) – Kazakhstan has stopped
issuing visas to Chinese citizens and will cut all major transport links with
China over the coronavirus, the government said on Wednesday.
Cross-border bus journeys are to stop from Wednesday, followed by the
suspension of passenger train services from Saturday, the government said in
a statement.
Regular flights between the two countries will be stopped from February 3.
The Central Asian country does not have any confirmed cases of the new
virus but authorities have hospitalised 10 people who returned from China
with above average body temperatures.
The disease has spread to more than 15 countries since it emerged out of
Wuhan late last year, with the death toll soaring to 132 and confirmed
infections nearing 6,000.
At the weekend Kazakh authorities ordered the closure of the Kazakh side of
a cross border shopping zone at the Khorgos border crossing.
The government has also said it will evacuate dozens of citizens, mostly
students, who are trapped in the quarantined city of Wuhan.
Kazakhstan, a landlocked country of 18 million people, is a key part of
China’s trillion-dollar Belt and Road trade and infrastructure initiative and
a close ally to both Beijing and Moscow.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1744 hrs