Coronavirus: Iran's Mahan Air To Bring Blood Samples Of 300 Stranded Indians In The Country
Iranian carrier Mahan Air will bring blood samples of 300 Indians stranded in the coronavirus-hit country.Once the flight lands, samples of Indians would be tested for coronavirus and only if found negative, the stranded passengers would be brought from the Islamic country.?
There are about 2,000 Indians mostly from the Kargil area of Kashmir stranded there. They had gone to visit a religious shrine in Iran but got stuck as regular commercial flights were suspended between the two countries following the spread of the virus.
On Thursday, MoS for External Affairs V Muraleedharan had said that the Indian fishermen stranded in coronavirus-hit Iran are in good health.He informed that the Indian Embassy in Iran has reached out to them for all possible help.?
Earlier this week, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor wrote to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar urging him to direct Indian embassy officials in Iran to take necessary steps for the evacuation of more than a hundred Indian fishermen stranded in Iran.?
Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said on Friday that Indian authorities were in touch with Iranian counterparts to launch operations for bringing Indians back.Puri said all are fully geared up to screen passengers and also follow up cases, amid the virus outbreak.Iran is one of the countries that has been severely affected by the outbreak.?
Almost 2,000 Iranians are currently in India who would be flown back to their country by the ferry flights.The ferry flight cleared by aviation regulator DGCA will land within 24 hours in Delhi.?
A team of Indian doctors has already been sent to Iran for ensuring that stranded citizens there are thoroughly examined before boarding the evacuation flight.Earlier, India had said that it had not received any information from the Iran Embassy about 495 Iranian tourists who are reportedly in the country and are untraceable, External Affairs Ministry said.?
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar assured that there is no need for panic because the tourists had arrived in India before the outbreak of coronavirus in Iran."As per protocol when is a foreign national goes missing the embassy concerned is the first to know and then they notify us. We have so far not received any information from the Iranian Embassy," Raveesh Kumar said.
Coronavirus death toll in Iran has now crossed 107 while over 90,000 people across the world have been infected.On February 27, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation temporarily suspended Iranian carriers from operating flights to India in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak in that country.Currently, two Iranian carriers -- IranAir and Mahan Air -- operate flights to Mumbai and Delhi, respectively.
