DGCA approves A-I flight to evacuate students from China

Correspondent

New Delhi: India today stepped up efforts to evacuate its nationals from Wuhan as toll from the novel coronavirus outbreak in China crossed 106. The Ministry of External Affairs made a formal request to China for facilitating the evacuation of Indian nationals from Wuhan with top government sources saying the “prospects for evacuation look bright”. The Director General of Civil Aviation swiftly approved an Air India flight to Wuhan for the purpose.

The government meanwhile clarified that Indian nationals returning from China would have to undergo mandatory quarantine for two weeks to rule out infection. The quarantine, top government source, would not happen in hospitals and would be located in the facilities of Home, Defence and Labour Ministries. Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said, “Indian nationals returning from China would be quarantined for two weeks for which necessary preparations are being made.

Meanwhile, we appeal to every Indian with travel history to China over the past month to self report in case they encounter respiratory stress, cold, cough or fever.” Vardhan also said four additional laboratories apart from the National Institute of Virology, Pune, had been activated to handle sample detection and isolation wards had been kept ready in most hospitals. “There has been no case of n-CoV in India so far but abundant caution is necessary,” Vardhan said. The Health Ministry is also procuring more thermal scanners which allow authorities to isolate passengers with higher than normal body temperature and screen them to rule out infection.

The Ministry of Shipping also began screening at all major ports today. In all, so far 155 flights have been screened involving 33,552 passengers. The samples from 20 passengers have been tested and found negative. The top priority for the government right now is to earmark quarantine facilities for around 250 Indians, primarily students, when they return from China. Most of the 250 Indians in Hubei province (whose capital is Wuhan) are students, research scholars and professionals working with Indian and global companies.