NEW DELHI: India has evacuated 1444 nationals from different Covid-19 infected countries in the past weeks, sources said. These include 766 from China, 124 from Japan , 336 from Iran and 218 from Italy so far.V. Muraleedharan , minister of state for external affairs tweeted, "218 Indians including 211 students from Milan landed in Delhi. All will be quarantined for 14 days. GoI is committed to reach out to Indians in distress, wherever they are!.”S. Jaishankar, foreign minister welcomed home Indians stranded in Iran. “234 Indians stranded in #Iran have arrived in India; including 131 students and 103 pilgrims. Thank you Ambassador @dhamugaddam and @India_in_Iranteam for your efforts. Thank Iranian authorities.”Both Iran and Italy evacuations have tested the Indian authorities and the missions in these countries. Iran being completely overwhelmed by the scale of the outbreak, it has been left to India to fend for itself. So India had to send its own testing labs, and medical teams to collect swabs and samples to be tested. The teams moved from Qom to Tehran , battling significant difficulties in moving between towns, officials said. In Italy, the problem was compounded by the fact that Lombardy region was completely under a lockdown.Officials said India made its first determination about Covid-19 in end-December. By January 15, the government had started screening passengers at the airports, particularly from China where the virus outbreak originated. “As a large and densely populated country, it was important that we make an effort to minimise the impact of this new disease,” officials said. Modi told the Saarc leaders, “We have tried to take proactive steps, including a graded response mechanism. … We have also increased diagnostic capabilities. Within two months, we moved from one major facility for pan-India testing, to more than 60 such labs.”He said, India has “developed protocols for each stage of managing this pandemic: for screening at entry points; contact tracing of suspected cases; quarantine and management of isolation facilities; and for discharge of cleared cases.”