Army sets up quarantine facility in Manesar for 300 students returning from Hubei

The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Haryana’s Manesar near Delhi to screen hundreds of people who will be back from Wuhan, the epicentre of an outbreak of a coronavirus that has killed more than 200 and infected thousands in China, news agency ANI reported on Friday,

A joint team of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) and Airport Health Authority (APHO) will screen the students, according to Asian News International.

They will be first screened at the airport followed by quarantine at the facility in Manesar and if anyone is suspected to be infected, they will be shifted to an isolation ward at the army’s Base Hospital in Delhi Cantonment.

The agency said they can be monitored for a duration of weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

The WHO early on Friday declared the ongoing outbreak that originated in China but has spread to at least 17 countries as an international public health emergency (PHEIC).

The Geneva-based agency’s declaration came after the death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak jumped to 213 across China with at least 42 new deaths reported from Hubei province where Wuhan is.

The number of infections in the country has crossed the 9000-mark with more 1200 new infections reported from Hubei.

There are 5806 cases of the epidemic in Hubei alone, provincial health officials said on Friday morning in the first update on the spreading virus.