More Indians to be rescued from coronavirus-hit Wuhan as second Air India flight leaves today

The second flight to evacuate Indian nationals from coronavirus epicentre Wuhan in China will leave today, national carrier Air India said. “Another flight will depart from Delhi to Wuhan at 12.50 pm today with different set of crew, same team of doctors with different aircraft. The rescue team will be again headed by Capt Amitabh Singh, Director Operation, Air India,” the airline’s spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar said.

The special Air India flight with 324 Indians landed in Delhi from Wuhan early on Saturday, and were taken to the medical observation camps (quarantine facilities) set-up by Indian Army and Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP) in Manesar near Gurgaon and Chhawla in West Delhi respectively.

Among the rescued passengers, 211 are students, 110 are working professionals and three minors. Twenty-two of them belong to Maharashtra, and the rest are from Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

The Boeing 747, one of the largest in Air India’s fleet, had reached Wuhan on Friday evening with a team of doctors to bring back the Indians who had been stranded in a city in Hubei province, which is now completely locked down over the outbreak.

Chinese health officials said on Saturday at least 259 people have died and nearly are 11,800 infected with the novel coronavirus and that the hardest-hit central Chinese province of Hubei reported 45 new fatalities until Friday midnight.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday declared the outbreak as an international public health emergency.

India thanked China for facilitating the special flight to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan.

Two Indians were prevented from boarding the special Air India flight from Wuhan by the Chinese immigration authorities because both were running high temperatures. The barred passengers included a man and a woman and they are likely to be quarantined at a facility in Wuhan and checked for coronavirus symptoms.