Special Air India plane brings back Indians from Wuhan amid coronavirus panic

A special
Air India plane with over 300 Indians from China’s coronavirus-hit Wuhan landed
in New Delhi this Saturday morning.

The plane
reached Delhi around 7:30 am, said officials.

The jet left
India with 20 crew members, five doctors from Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia (RML)
hospital and an Air India paramedic with stocks of medicines, masks, protective
gear and packed food.

“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 the
cabin crew and passengers,” said Ashwani Lohani, the chairman and managing
director of Air India who was present during the departure.

A joint team
of the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) and Airport Health Authority will
screen the evacuees in a two-step process at the Delhi airport.

On Friday
evening, the Air India spokesperson had stated that another special flight may
take off from Delhi airport on Saturday to evacuate Indians from Wuhan.

On Friday, the number of deaths due to
the pathogen reached 213 and confirmed infections globally neared 10,000.

The speed of
the spread, coronavirus infections have now surpassed the total number of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) cases seen in 2003, prompted the World
Health Organization (WHO) late on Thursday to declare the outbreak a global
health emergency.

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