A special Air India plane carrying 324 Indian nationals from the Coronavirus-hit Wuhan landed in Delhi on Saturday morning. Another flight for Wuhan is scheduled to leave this afternoon. Air India's jumbo B747 aircraft carrying 211 students, 110 working professionals and 3 minors reached the national capital at around 7:30 am today. The flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1:17 pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where the Novel Coronavirus (nCoV) has killed around 250 people- none of whom are Indian.
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The plane had 5 doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) hospital and 1 paramedical staff according to an Air India spokesperson. Indian Army has also set up a quarantine facility near Delhi in Manesar for all those who have been evacuated from China's Hubei province.
The Health Ministry assured the public that all 324 Indians who have been evacuated from Wuhan are fine. The Health Ministry also went onto say that the health screening of these 324 Indians is being done at medical camps.
People stranded in Wuhan can contact the Indian Embassy on these helplines: +8618610952903 and +8618612083629 or the dedicated e-mail address: helpdesk.beijing@mea.gov.in before 08:00 hours till February 1.
Hours after the first flight from Wuhan arrived, another flight for Wuhan is slated to depart from Delhi at 12:50 pm today with a different set of crew, the same team of medical professionals with a different aircraft. The rescue team will be headed by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director Operations, Air India, according to an Air India spokesperson. The spokesperson also went onto add there were 5 cockpit crew members and 15 cabin crew members on Friday's flight to Wuhan.
Air India chairman and MD Ashwani Lohani said that no services will be provided on the plane and all the food will be stored in seat packets. As there will be no service on board, there will be zero interaction between the cabin crew and passengers. Lohani also stated that personal protection equipments such as masks have been arranged for the cabin crew and passengers. The crew will also have a complete protective gear. Apart from the cabin crew, the plane will also carry 5 doctors from the Health Ministry. The AI plane will be in Wuhan for 2-3 hours.
People evacuated from the Hubei province will be monitored for signs of any infection for 2 weeks by qualified medical professionals. Till now, around 124 positive cases of coronavirus have been reported in many countries, including India. The first coronavirus positive case in India came out from Kerala.
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