The special Air India flight carrying 324 Indian nationals from China landed in New Delhi on Saturday.
The flight had taken off in the wee hours of Saturday from Wuhan.
The Boeing 747 Jumbo aircraft is bringing the 324 people, mostly students, who were stranded in the coronavirus-hit Chinese city, reports quoting Air India spokesperson stated.
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According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the number of Indians in the Hubei Province is around 1,200 people.
The passengers will be kept in isolation for 14 days at the ITBP centre in Chhawla in the national capital upon their arrival.
The Safdarjung Hospital has kept 50 beds for critical patients, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Special Secretary (Health), Sanjeeva Kumar had said on Friday.
Earlier the Indian embassy took to Twitter:
‘An Air India flight carrying 324 Indian nationals from the coronavirus hit Hubei Province of China took off from Wuhan in the early hours of Feb 1. The majority of the passengers were Indian students. We sincerely thank the Chinese government for facilitating this flight.’
The embassy said that the Indian government is planning for another flight to evacuate the remaining Indian nationals and also asked its citizens in Hubei to avail flight for India.
“We urge all Indian citizens from Hubei who intend to avail this flight for India and not yet contacted the Embassy, to urgently call the hotlines (+8618610952903 and +8618612083629) or dedicated email ID [email protected] before 0800 hours on February 1, 2020,” the embassy tweeted.
“We look forward to operating another flight to evacuate remaining Indian nationals, who have consented to leave Hubei Province for the time being,” it stated in a subsequent tweet.
India has been waiting for China’s approval for repatriating Indians from Wuhan city in Hubei Province.
The MEA has established contacts with over 600 Indians across the province and said it is individually ascertaining their willingness to travel back to India.
The first case of coronavirus was reported in December.
The flight includes all necessary resources like masks, medical equipment, packed food, prescribed medicines, along with a team of five doctors from the Health Ministry, and paramedical personnel from Air India.
Twenty crew members, including 15 cabin crew and five cockpit crews are on board.
