Air India's jumbo B747 plane, evacuating 324 Indian nationals from the coronavirus-hit Wuhan in China, landed on Saturday morning. The plane reached Delhi around 7.30am. There are five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board.
The flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1.17pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where more than 200 people—none of them Indian—have died due to novel coronavirus. On Friday evening, the Air India spokesperson had stated that another special flight may take off from Delhi airport on Saturday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan.
The Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar near Delhi to keep around 300 Indian students being evacuated from China's Hubei province in view of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Separately, border-guarding force ITBP has set up a 600-bedded facility in southwest Delhi's Chhawla area to quarantine and provide basic medical care to those suspected to have been affected by the coronavirus. An additional 50-bedded critical care facility has also been set up at the Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital, a Union Health Ministry statement said.
About Friday's flight, the spokesperson had said earlier during the day, "A team of five doctors from RML hospital, one paramedical staff from Air India, with prescribed medicines from doctors, masks, overcoats, packed food are in the aircraft. A team of engineers, security personnel are also there in this special aircraft. Whole rescue mission is being lead by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director (Operations), Air India."
The spokesperson had added that there were five cockpit crew members and 15 cabin crew members on Friday's flight. Before departure at Delhi airport on Friday morning, Air India Chairman and Managing Director Ashwani Lohani had said, "No service will take place in the plane. Whatever food is there will be kept in seat pockets. As there will be no service, there will be no interaction (between cabin crew and passengers)."
"Masks have been arranged for the crew and passengers. For our crew, we have also arranged a complete protective gear," he had added. "Total five doctors from the health ministry are also going... The plane will be there (at Wuhan airport) for 2-3 hours," Lohani had said.
Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.
The death toll in China's novel coronavirus outbreak on Friday climbed to 213 with the number of confirmed cases totalling to 9,692. Hubei province reported 5,806 confirmed cases, including 204 deaths. Indian Army officials said the procedure of screening and quarantining of people being evacuated from China will comprise two steps.
The first one will be at the Indira Gandhi International airport, followed by their detailed screening at the Manesar facility, an official said. "If any individual is suspected to be infected, he/she will be shifted to the isolation ward at Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment (BHDC)," he said. Any individual with any sign of fever, cough or any respiratory distress will be directly transferred to BHDC. People who have no symptom of the coronavirus infection but have met any suspected coronavirus-infected person will be escorted in an earmarked vehicle directly to the quarantine facility.
An individual without any symptom(s) or contact will also be sent to the quarantine facility, the officials said.The screening at the airport will be done by a joint team of the Armed Forces Medical Services and the Airport Health Authority (APHO). The facility in Manesar consists of accommodation barracks, administrative areas and medical facility area. To prevent a mass outbreak, the facility has been divided into sectors and each of them will have a maximum capacity to keep 50 people.
Each barrack has been further subdivided into more barracks and people from separate sectors will not be allowed to mingle with each other. Officials said daily medical examination of all students will be done at the facility and all the staff, healthcare workers and housekeeping staff must wear their personal protective equipment (PPE) at all times. PPE consists of masks, eye shields, shoe covers, gowns and gloves.
"Rest of the visitors and all students will wear a three-layered mask at all times. After 14 days, persons with no symptoms will be allowed to go home with their detailed documentation sent to district/state surveillance units," said the official. He said those found infected will be shifted to BHDC's isolation ward for further medical exams and recovery. The facility at Manesar will be administered by a nominated Officer In Charge (OIC).
-Inputs from PTI
