India evacuates 1,031 persons

The government revealed Friday that it has so far evacuated 1,031 persons, including 48 nationals, from countries such as Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh, China, US, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, Nepal, South Africa, and Peru after the coronavirus Covid-19 outbreak.

Releasing fresh data, the Ministry of Health said that till Friday 890 evacuees from Covid-19 affected countries have been discharged after the mandatory 14-day isolation period and having tested negative as per protocols.

This includes 654 evacuees from Wuhan on February 1 and 3, who were discharged on February 18, 124 evacuees from Japan, and another 112 from China were discharged today after having tested negative in the second round of tests.

The government said it has relentlessly worked towards the evacuation of Indian nationals from any major Covid-19 affected country by sending scientists, equipment for labs, reagents and brought back samples for testing to the country. So far, 1,199 samples have been collected in Iran and brought to India for testing.

A special flight operated by Indian Air Force brought back 58 passengers from Iran on March 10. India also facilitated Iranian airline Mahan Air’s flight to bring back people from Tehran with 44 passengers landing in Mumbai today. These passengers are being kept in quarantine at the Navy facility in Mumbai. Another Mahan Air flight is expected to land Saturday in Delhi.

India has also sent a team of four doctors from the Ministry of Health to Rome to collect samples of Indians there for onward testing in India.

In addition, the government revealed, a total 1,171,061 passengers have been screened from 10,876 flights at 30 designated airports. 3,062 passengers and 583 contacts were identified and referred to IDSP/designated hospitals. As many as 42,296 passengers have been brought under community surveillance, out of which 2,559 were symptomatic and 522 hospitalized. Further, 25,504 passengers have been additionally screened at major and minor seaports, and more than 14 lakh people have been screened at land ports.

As of Friday, there are 81 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in India. Of these, three from Kerala were treated and discharged. In addition, seven more from Delhi’s Safdurjung Hospital have also recovered. Of these confirmed cases, 64 cases are of Indian nationals, 16 Italian nationals and one Canadian national.

The confirmed cases also include the first casualty of Covid-19 in the country. Death of a 76-year-old man from Karnataka is confirmed to be caused due to comorbidities like asthma and hypertension besides being tested positive for Covid-19..