Nepal PM's India visit cancelled due to surge in Covid-19 cases in Gujarat

Kathmandu, Jan 6: Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba's scheduled visit to India next week has been cancelled after the Gujarat government postponed the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in view of rising COVID cases in the state. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to inaugurate the 10th edition of the Summit on January 10 in Gujarat.

The Nepal Prime Minister's four-day visit to India was scheduled to begin on January 9, said PTI sources in the prime minister's private secretariat. Apart from the summit, Deuba was also scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the visit.

The Gujarat government on Thursday announced that the summit is being postponed in the wake of a spike in COVID-19 cases, according to the Chief Minister's Office. The three-day summit was to be held in a big way to attract investments, and delegations from many partner countries and CEOs of top companies were supposed to participate in the event, PTI reports.

Meanwhile, Gujarat reported over 3,000 fresh cases for the first time after May 26 last year with the addition of 3,350 infections, raising the state's tally to 8,40,643. Also, the state reported 50 new cases of the Omicron variant on Wednesday, taking the tally of such cases in the state to 204, as per the state health department. PTI