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Talent Gore and Rudo Muchedzi
The Chinese Embassy has not changed its visa policy towards Zimbabwean nationals who wish to travel to China despite the outbreak of COVID-19 in the Asian country.

As of yesterday, nearly 60 000 confirmed cases of coronavirus had been reported in mainland China.

At least 25 countries have confirmed cases and several nations have evacuated their citizens from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus in China.

Four deaths have been recorded outside mainland China, one each in Hong Kong, the Philippines, France and Japan.

Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Guo Shaochun said there had been a decline in visa applications.

“There is no change on China’s visa policy towards Zimbabwean nationals,” said Mr Guo. “There are always Zimbabwean nationals going to China for business, school and tourism.

“Recently, because of the outbreak of the coronavirus, we have seen a reduced number of visa applications from Zimbabwean nationals.

“It is easy to understand because no one would want to take a risk. So, I am very sure that this is just a temporary situation and when China wins the battle against the virus we are going to see an increase of people applying for visas.”

Mr Guo said the number of trips from China to Zimbabwe had been kept at a minimum and no suspected cases had been identified as yet.

He said there was close contact between Beijing and Harare to follow up on Zimbabwean nationals in China.

“China has a large community of foreign nationals and their safety is as important to us as the Chinese citizens,” he said.

“An emergency response mechanism has been created by the Chinese foreign affairs ministry to take care of the foreign community in the country.

Mr Guo commended Government for the support it offered to China.

“I must commend the professionalism of the Zimbabwean Government, it has conducted an informed and scientific assessment of the situation, acted on the advice of the World Health Organisation and put in place reasonable effective measures to keep out the virus,” he said.

“These measures proved sufficient and are more than enough now that China has taken the initiative to suspend all unnecessary travels abroad.”