Air India Flight With 324 Indians From Wuhan Lands In Delhi, Evacuees To Be Quarantined For 14 Days

The special Air India flight with 324 Indians who were evacuated from the coronavirus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan has landed in the national capital on Saturday morning.

The Boeing 747 Jumbo aircraft had taken off from Wuhan's Tianhe International Airport in the early hours of Saturday and landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 7:26 am.

On their arrival, the passengers, mostly students were screened by doctors at the airport for possible infection. Even after the initial screening, the evacuees will be put under quarantine at a facility in Manesar which is managed by Armed Forces Medical Services and at Chhawla which is managed by ITBP.

This is because all those who are infected by the virus don't necessarily show the symptoms immediately. The Union Health Ministry had said on Friday that the government has made adequate quarantine camps.

The Boeing 747, a double-decker, one of the largest in Air India¡¯s fleet, had taken off from Mumbai and stooped in Delhi, from where preventives like masks and medical kits were loaded. Doctors and paramedical staff were also on board to examine the Indian citizens before they were allowed to board the flight.

The departure of the flight was delayed from Wuhan airport as immigration and Chinese authorities did not allow six Indians on board after they reported high temperatures during screening.

"Six passengers were offloaded as they had high temperatures," a passenger told ANI.

India thanked China for facilitating the special flight to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan. ¡°An Air India flight carrying 324 Indian nationals from the coronavirus hit Hubei Province of China took off from Wuhan in the early hours of Feb 1. Majority of the passengers were Indian students. We sincerely thank the Chinese government for facilitating this flight,¡± the Indian embassy tweeted.

According to the Indian Embassy in Beijing, there will be another flight to evacuate the remaining Indian nationals. "We look forward to operating another flight to evacuate remaining Indian nationals, who have consented to leave Hubei Province for the time being," the EOI Beijing announced on its official Twitter handle.

The second special flight will depart at 12.50 pm Saturday for Wuhan from Delhi. It will have a different set of crew, but the same team of doctors and paramedical staff.

Chinese health officials said on Saturday at least 259 people have died and nearly are 11,800 infected with the novel coronavirus and that the hardest-hit central Chinese province of Hubei reported 45 new fatalities until Friday midnight. The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared the outbreak as an international public health emergency.