E-Paper
Foreign nationals from 6 countries on India’s flight from Wuhan
All the evacuees will be kept at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) quarantine facility at Chhawla, New Delhi, which has been kept ready for the purpose.
Around 120 passengers including 30 foreign nationals from India’s friendly countries - including the US, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Tanzania, Maldives and South Africa onboard an Indian rescue flight from China will land in Delhi in the wee hours of Thursday, said officials.
The passengers have been evacuated from coronavirus epicenter of Wuhan and will land around 4 am in Delhi on February 27, said the official, who didn’t wish to be named.
All the evacuees will be kept at the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) quarantine facility at Chhawla, New Delhi, which has been kept ready for the purpose.
The official quoted above said the passengers will go through thermal screening at the airport Isolation bay by a team of ITBP doctors.
India had earlier this month evacuated seven Maldivian nationals from Wuhan along with Indian citizens and the foreign affairs ministry said that it had offered to evacuate citizens from other neighbouring countries as well.
An Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft had departed for China on Wednesday to deliver 15 tonnes of medical assistance and to evacuate stranded Indians at Wuhan.
Last week, India and China had a terse exchange over clearance for IAF’s C-17 Globemaster aircraft with New Delhi saying the permission was being deliberately held up and Beijing accusing India of blocking trade and medical supplies in violation of the WHO guidelines. India had denied the allegations and said it was acting in accordance with the WHO guidelines.
Finally, the plane carrying assistance was cleared and it landed in Wuhan on Wednesday evening, confirmed external affairs minister S Jaishankar. The flight was scheduled to reach Delhi airport from Wuhan around 4am on Thursday.
“This assistance has been provided in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak in China and the request by that country to provide supplies such as masks and medical equipment,” the ministry said.
On their return, the fresh batch of evacuees is likely to remain in isolation for 14 days at the ITBP-run quarantine facility on the outskirts of Delhi.
Earlier this month, two Air India aircraft evacuated 647 Indians from Wuhan. They were quarantined for 14-days and discharged by February 18 after found not infected.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had written to Chinese President Xi Jinping on February 8 to express the solidarity of the Indian government with its Chinese counterpart and offered assistance in the hour of need “as a gift”.
Following a spike in the number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in destinations outside of China, the Indian government on Wednesday issued a fresh travel advisory, cautioning people to avoid non-essential travel to South Korea, Iran and Italy. This is in addition to an advisory against travel to China, Hong Kong and Singapore, which are countries that have reported local transmissions of the infection.
On Saturday, India expanded thermal screening of passengers to include people returning from six more countries--Nepal, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Japan and South Korea -- at the country’s airports and major seaports.
According to the earlier directive of January 17, passengers coming from China, Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore were being screened using thermal scanners.
India has so far detected three confirmed COVID-19 cases, all in Kerala, and all have been discharged from hospital after being cured.
