With the Chinese city of Shanghai continuing to grapple with the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Indian consulate in the city suspended all physical consular services on Wednesday, 13 April.
In a notice on its website, the consulate announced that "Indian citizens in Eastern China Region may apply at Embassy of India, Beijing for availing urgent consular services."
Considered to be the business hub of China, the city of over 25 million people reported over 25,000 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with the city's police department warning people of stern action in case of lockdown violations.
"As the City of Shanghai continues to remain sealed and controlled in different degrees by the Shanghai Municipal People's Government, the Consulate General of India will remain inaccessible and will not be in a position to provide consular services in person,” the notice on Tuesday read.
However, the notice underlined that it will remain "operational in remote mode and may be reached for any consular emergency."
As per Consul General D Nandakumar, even as the consulate suspends in-person operations, it is aiding over 1,000 Indian nationals currently based in Shanghai by providing them counselling services, news agency PTI reported.
The report says that nearly 22 people of the consulate staff are presently working from home.
Meanwhile, in a video that went viral on social media earlier this week, residents of Shanghai can be heard screaming from their balconies and windows as the city continues to be under a strict lockdown since 5 April.
The lockdown that has been imposed by the government is so strict that people are even prohibited from leaving their homes to buy food.
Ration supplies have been dropped and food delivery services are also extremely limited, according to local reports.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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