2 February 2020, New Delhi
Air India’s jumbo B747 plane, evacuating 324 Indian nationals from the novel coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China landed on Saturday morning, officials said. The plane reached Delhi around 7.30 am, they said.
There were five doctors fromRam Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board, said an Air India spokesperson. The evacuees from Wuhan comprised three minors, 211 students and 110 working professionals, the spokesperson said.
The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep those evacuated from China’s Hubei province. Officials said they would be monitored for any signs of infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.
On Friday evening, the Air India spokesperson had stated that another special flight may take off from Delhi airport on Saturday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan.
The death toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China has risen to 259 with total confirmed cases surging to 11,791 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, officials said on Saturday.
Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.
