india

Updated: Feb 28, 2020 05:36 IST

Six Chinese nationals, three women married to Indians and their three children with Chinese citizenship, are among 36 foreign nationals evacuated on Wednesday night along with 76 Indians from the outbreak city of Wuhan, China. They arrived on Thursday morning and were whisked away for 14 days quarantine in the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) facility at Chhawla in the outskirts of Delhi.

Apart from the six women and children from China, the foreign nationals in the Chhawla camp include people from Bangladesh (23), Myanmar (2), Maldives (2), Madagascar (1), South Africa (1) and the United States (1). Eight families and five children are part of the batch housed in the ITBP camp. “After first (thermal) screening at the airport, this batch was brought to the Chhawla camp… daily monitoring and check-ups will be conducted for the entire quarantine period. None of the evacuees in the camp have shown any covid-19 symptoms as of now,” said an ITBP spokesperson.

In another flight sent to Japan, India also evacuated 124 people (119 Indians and 5 foreign nationals) who were quarantined on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship at Yokohama due to cases of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). The evacuees from the ship have been kept in the Indian Army-run quarantine facility at Manesar in Haryana.

The five foreigners retrieved from the ship belong to Nepal (1), Sri Lanka (2), Peru (1), and South Africa (1). “119 Indians (110 men; 9 women) and five foreign nationals, who were on board Diamond Princess Cruise Ship, off Japan Coast and brought back in an AI special flight from Japan have been quarantined at Indian Army facility at Manesar,” said an Army spokesperson.

The evacuations were conducted by the Indian Air Force. A C17 transport aircraft went to China, and a special Air India flight to Japan on Wednesday night. The Air Force plane had left for China with 15 tonnes of medical supplies, and returned with the evacuees.

“As many as 124 persons have been evacuated from Japan, including 119 Indian citizens and five foreign nationals by an Air India flight. These were quarantined on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship... In addition, 112 persons have been evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak by an IAF flight,” said Union health minister, Harshvardhan, in a statement.

Of the 138 Indians on board the cruise ship, 119 out of 122 who were tested and found negative have been brought back as three Indian nationals opted not to come back. All the other 16 are in hospitals in Japan getting treatment in quarantine.

“The Government of India, as an expression of solidarity with Chinese people at this difficult time, has also sent a consignment of 15 tonnes of Indian Medical Relief for COVID-19 to Wuhan, China. Apart from expressing gratitude, I am extremely proud of the way multiple ministries, our Armed forces, our doctors, Air India, our embassies, both at China and Japan, and the many unseen who worked behind the scenes, made this happen. All have put India and Indians first...” Harshvardhan said.

As the number of cases is rising outside China, India revised its travel advisory, asking people to avoid all non-essential travel to Singapore, the Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy. People coming from the Republic of Korea, Iran and Italy or having such travel history since February 10, 2020, may be quarantined for 14 days on arrival to India.

Health ministry is closely monitoring surveillance and disease management efforts by the states. As many as 4,82,927 passengers have been screened from 4787 flights since January 17, 2020, when India began thermal screening. Screening at 21 airports, 12 major seaports and 65 minor seaports and land crossings, particularly bordering Nepal, is currently on.

Passengers are also monitored under community surveillance through Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme network on a daily basis.