Japan has raised its travel advisory for 11 countries including Argentina, India and South Africa, to Level 3, urging against any trips to the areas during the global coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Friday.

The countries are expected to soon be added to a list of countries and regions subject to an entry ban for foreign travelers after discussion by the National Security Council, Motegi said at a press conference.

The other countries are Afghanistan, Bangladesh, El Salvador, Ghana, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

(A cleaner walks past empty check-in desks at Narita Airport on April 17, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan)[Getty/Kyodo]  
 
International travel to and from Japan has slowed to a trickle due to border controls imposed to slow the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus, with the number of foreign visitors plunging 99.9 percent and outgoing Japanese nationals falling 99.8 percent in April compared with a year earlier.

The United States, China and all of Europe are among the 100 countries and regions already covered by the entry ban, which applies to foreign nationals who have been to any of the areas within two weeks of arriving in Japan.