Coronavirus: 324 Indians, including 42 Keralites, from Wuhan reach Delhi

Beijing/Wuhan: A special Air India flight, carrying 324 Indians from China's coronavirus-hit Wuhan city, reached New Delhi Saturday morning.

The group compirses 234 men and 90 women. As many as 42 persons from Kerala, 56 from Andhra and 53 from Tamil Nadu are part of this group.

The Chinese authorities did not allow two persons to board the flight. They were reportedly unfit to undertake the journey and needed medical attention.

The flight took off from Wuhan's Tianhe International Airport in the wee hours of Saturday.

The flight had reached Wuhan on Friday.

There were five doctors from Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital and one paramedical staff on board.

India had allocated two flights to airlift around 400 students stranded in Hubei province, the epicentre of the virus, officially known as 2019-nCoV. There are 28 Keralites among the stranded students.

Hours after the arrival of the first 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 Capt Amitabh Singh, Director Operation, Air India."

Wuhan is the provincial capital of Hubei province. Over 700 Indians, mostly medical students and research scholars, study in the local universities. Many had left for home earlier to avail the Chinese New Year/Spring Festival Holidays.

Ahead of the Indian flights, Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi flights left with their nationals. The airport, which was earlier closed for all air traffic, has been opened in the last two days to allow a number of countries to evacuate their nationals.

Though the Indian officials have made elaborate arrangements to evacuate the Indian nationals in coordination with their Chinese counterparts, the travel to the airport became arduous for the stranded Indians as the city is under lockdown for about a week with all internal and external travel banned.

The Indians were picked up by special buses operated by the Chinese government from designated spots. For many, it turned out to be a long wait in the cold in the virus-hit city due to the delay in arrival of the buses.

At the airport, they were screened on arrival and waited for the gates to open to go to the terminal.

India has taken an undertaking from the Indians travelling in the two flights that they would be quarantined for 14 days after their arrival, besides undergoing special checks at the Wuhan airport.

"Some of us have reached the Wuhan Tianhe International Airport while some others are on their way," a student, who did not want to be identified, told PTI over phone.

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)."

A team of engineers, security personnel were also there in the special aircraft. The whole rescue mission is being lead by Captain Amitabh Singh, Director (Operations), Air India, the spokesman said, adding that there are five cockpit crew and 15 cabin crew on Friday's special flight.

The death toll in China's coronavirus epidemic spiked to 213 and total infections reached 9,692, the government said on Friday as the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak that has spread to more than a dozen countries, including India, as a global health emergency.

About 20 countries, including India, the UK, US, South Korea, Japan and France, have reported confirmed cases of the virus in travellers coming from China.

(With PTI inputs)