COVID-19: North & Central Asia border closures and travel restrictions
 

This thread is ment to exchange information about
- travel restrictions in Central Asia due to the Corona virus/Covid-19
- any other news about Corona in these countries.

Our original plan is to travel through the STANs and Russia from April to autumn. We still stick to it, but chances are high that closed borders or similar obstacles might influence our trip.

Right now I am aware of two border restrictions:
- Russia closed their border to China and to Mongolia last week. The first could be read "everywhere", the second was reported by two seperate German motorcycle travellers.
- The German Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced this on their offical page:
On 18.02.2020 Kazakstan introduced preventive measurments against Corona:
1) Charantine in hospital for travellers, who´ve been to China in the last 14 days.
2) Limitation of travel-freedom / kind of "soft" charantine for people who visited countries with sigificant numbers of infections within the last 14 days (e.g. Singapur, Hongkong, Taiwan, Japan, Thailand, Iran, Northkorea, Southkorea and Italy)
3) Travellers from countries with insignificant numbers of infections have to be available for 24 days for medical inspection (remote monitoring).

The latest might be a bad translation by me and I have no further information of how this remote monitoring might work. But I have a feeling that our kind of travelling = zigzaging through the contry without a fixed agenda/route, including bushcamping, is not what they would allow these days.

Beside the risk of not being allowed into one of the countries I see the danger of an outbrake in one of them while we are there. In consequence Russia will most likely close their borders, which would block our way back home.

Underdeveloped countries like Tadjikistan und Kyrgystan are neighbours of China and once the virus is there, they have not the resources to cope with it. Thereby it will spread rapidly in those countries.

Cheers

Panny

Hi Panny

We (two guys on KTM 790R) are due to leave on 10/4...plan was to go to bottom of Italy and ferry across to Durres and onwards through Greece, Turkey, Georgia , Azerbaijan and ferry across to Turkmenistan then the stans through to China and meet guide to take us along to Laos......the guide has asked if we can postpone till September but thats not possible so we were going to head towards China and if all fails head across Kazakhstan and towards home... now Italy is a problem so we were going to reroute via Croatia to Istanbul but I'm beginning to think this is becoming no longer a pleasure ride and more a case of dodging the bullets.....
We will sit tight for a couple of weeks and see what happens......

For the Mongolian border:

I asked my relatives in Mongolia ( and there are some who really know about these things )

The Mongolian-Russian border was closed for Tsaagan Sar , which is the Mongolian Lunar new year.
Also some cities like UB and Darkhan were closed during Tsaagan Sar.

In the situation of the corona virus the Mongolian Government did not want people to travel around through the whole country in this situation.

There the borders and cities will be opened again on 27th of February

The Russian border to Mongolia stays closed to Chinese Citizens or travellers who have been in China for the last 3 month.

But they will be open for the rest.
At least as long it does not change the situation in a bad way.

Kazakhstan has instituted modest monitoring measures for travelers outside of the stricter ones for Chinese nationals.

They have no reported cases as of now.

See here https://kz.usembassy.gov/covid-19-information/

This of course will change frequently.

Dan

Hi Dan,

that´s, what I listed above under number 3.
Your link gave me at least a better understanding of this "remote monitoring":
QUOTE
Individuals arriving from these countries will be subject to 24 days of daily medical monitoring by telephone following their arrival to Kazakhstan.
END OF QUOTE.


Thanks
Panny

Kyrgyzstan
 

So far as I am informed:
- Chinese border closed since beginning of February.
- No infections public till now in Kyrgyzstan.

Live as usual here and soon ready for gravel n' dust!
Chears!

The key is the direct link to the US consular website which is live and updated for US citizens and other countries also. I’ve noticed it already updated in the few days that I have been following it.


Dan

I'm also planning a trip to the 'Stans, Pamir highway and Iran, leaving end of April till beginning of October.
I feel at this moment it's better to skip Iran.

@gsadvman Where and wich ferry do you take and how organize the visa?

See this discussion on another forum that focuses on Central Asia travel:

Corona virus border closures

It's a long discussion, and I don't know if the original poster is updating the very first post (that appears to be the case, but I can't be sure). But the participants in that discussion are mostly on-site in Central Asia, so I think the information you will find there is credible.

Michael

Kyrgyzstan Entry Restrictions - Corona Virus
 

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Bad news :thumbdown:
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https://24.kg/english/145168__Foreig...er_Kyrgyzstan/


https://24.kg/english/145109_Kyrgyzs...ral_countries/

Tajikistan Entry Restrictions - Corona Virus
 

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...KBN20P28G?il=0


https://asiaplustj.info/en/news/taji...zhdan-35-stran
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More Info: https://caravanistan.com/forum/viewt...p=35910#p35910

Kazakhstan - Corona-Virus
 

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- MEMO for the attention of travellers planning to visit Kazakhstan!
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More Info: https://caravanistan.com/forum/viewt...p=35910#p35910

Tajikistan scales down coronavirus-related travel ban
 

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN20Q215
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More Info: https://caravanistan.com/forum/viewt...p=35939#p35939

We are now going to head for Istanbul overland rather than down Italy and ferry across.....then onto Azerbaijan and ferry to Turkmenistan.
Tajikistan and Azerbaijan visa done online.....easy peasy
Leaving U.K. on 10/4

All of this doesn't sound good to all of us planning to hit Eurasia/Central Asia soon or for those who are stuck there :(

I'm on a French passport and I am also headed that way. Currently in Poland.

I can't find relevant information about what measures the Russians ( and Belarusians ) may have taken to monitor the situation apart from the border closures with China.

Does anyone know ?

Cheers,

Levelo.