Coronavirus: Second flight to evacuate Indians from Wuhan

Air India's jumbo B747 aircraft reached here on Saturday morning after evacuating 324 Indians from China's Wuhan city, the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak, officials said.

The plane, carrying 211 students, 110 working professionals and three minors, reached Delhi around 7.30 am, they said.

Another flight of the airline departed for the Chinese city from here around 1.37 pm, the officials said.

Five doctors from the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital who were onboard the first flight are also in the second flight, the Air India spokesperson said.

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 coronavirus infection 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 virus.

Officials said they will be monitored for any signs of the infection for a duration of two weeks by a qualified team of doctors and staff members.

The first flight had departed from Delhi airport at 1.17 pm on Friday to evacuate Indian nationals from China, where more than 250 people, none of them Indian, have died due to the deadly coronavirus infection.

Hours after the arrival of the flight from the Chinese city in Delhi, the Air India spokesperson said, "Another flight will depart to Wuhan from Delhi at 12.50 pm today with a different set of crew, same doctors' team with other aircraft. The rescue team is again headed by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director Operation, Air India."

Before departure , 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.

Wuhan, Hubei's capital, is the epicentre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. The virus has killed 259 people in China with total confirmed cases surging to 11,791 amid stepped up efforts by a number of countries to evacuate their nationals from Hubei province, officials said on Saturday.

Air India has done such evacuations earlier also from countries such as Libya, Iraq, Yemen, Kuwait and Nepal.