Air India jumbo plane ready for evacuation of Indians from Wuhan

Air India has kept a 423-seater jumbo plane ready in Mumbai for evacuating Indian citizens from Wuhan city in China in the wake of coronavirus outbreak, an official source said on Tuesday.

The airline is awaiting necessary approvals from external affairs and health ministries to operate the special flight for evacuation of the Indian citizens, the source said.

The decision follows government's instructions to various ministries to deal with the situation.

"We have kept a Boeing 747-400 ready in Mumbai to operate an evacuation flight to China whenever we get a go ahead from the government," the source said.

According to the source, around 250 Indians are to be evacuated.

"We are awaiting clearances from the external affairs ministry and also from the health ministry. The health ministry's nod is required because the operating crew has to fly to a virus outbreak territory," the source said.

At a meeting chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on Monday, it was decided to that steps may be taken to prepare for the possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan.

Coronavirus is a large family of viruses that causes illnesses ranging from the common cold to acute respiratory syndromes. The outbreak in China has been caused by a novel strain of the virus.

The outbreak has caused alarm because of its similarity to SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), which killed 349 people in mainland China and another 299 in Hong Kong in 2002-2003.

The external affairs ministry will make a request to Chinese authorities  for evacuation of Indian nationals, mostly students, stuck in Wuhan city.

Ministries of civil aviation and health will make arrangements for transport and quarantine facilities respectively, an official statement said on Monday.

The civil aviation ministry has also been asked to issue instruction to airlines for managing and notifying anybody reporting illness on all direct and indirect flights from China. Besides, the ministry will facilitate in-flight announcements and distribution of health cards in all flights with direct or indirect connectivity to China.

"It was decided that steps may be taken to prepare for the possible evacuation of Indian nationals in Wuhan. Accordingly, Ministry of External Affairs will make a request to the Chinese authorities," the statement said.

Wuhan along with 12 other cities have been completely sealed by the Chinese authorities to stop the virus from spreading. The death toll has climbed to 106 and  the confirmed cases of pneumonia caused by the outbreak stand at 4,515.