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Coronavirus quarantine camp in Jaisalmer ready to receive Indians evacuated from Iran
An Air India flight is expected to bring the evacuees to Jaisalmer from Mumbai, where they landed from Iran at noon on Friday.
Second batch of 44 Indians evacuated on Friday from coronavirus-hit Iran will be quarantined at an army camp in Jaisalmer beginning Friday afternoon and all requisite preparation had been made, said Rajasthan government.
Additional chief secretary, health, Rohit Kumar Singh said that all the evacuees have tested negative but they will be kept in isolation for two weeks as per the protocol.
“As per the protocol, they will be kept in isolation at the Army Hospital for 14 days. Collector Jaisalmer has been provided all requisite support and logistics by us,” Singh said.
An Air India flight is expected to bring the evacuees to Jaisalmer from Mumbai, where they landed from Iran at noon on Friday.
Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government is coordinating with the Iranian government to facilitate the return of around 2000 Indians stuck there.
The first batch of 58 Indians were brought back on Tuesday and two more batches will be evacuated in the next few days.
A special isolation ward has been created at the military station in Jaisalmer, where the Indians will be quarantined for check-ups. Several teams of doctors from around the country have been stationed at the military station.
The army and air force officials held a meeting on Thursday to review the special arrangements. The facility has been built to accommodate 2000 people.
Meanwhile, some locals have put on messages on social media alleging the government was treating people in Jaisalmer as ‘guinea pigs’ by exposing them to potentially virus-infected people.
Health experts say Jaisalmer was chosen for the quarantine facility because it has low population density and high temperatures.
There have been three confirmed coronavirus cases in Rajasthan so far including two Italian tourists and one local.
Singh said the state had three running testing facilities at Jaipur, Jodhpur and Jhalawar of which SMS Jaipur has done most of the testing- a total of 362 samples, three out of which tested positive for coronavirus.
The Jodhpur facility had tested only three samples so far and all of them turned out to be negative while the Jhalawar facility was yet to test any sample, said the officer.
Singh said the State health department had so far managed to trace 35 passengers of the Spicejet flight from Dubai on February 28 that carried the 85-year-old man who has tested positive. Other passengers are still being traced, he added.
