Coronavirus: 218 Indian Students evacuated from Italy

New Delhi, Mar 15, A total of 218 Indians, mostly students, were brought here from coronavirus-hit Italy on Sunday and taken to an ITBP quarantine facility in southwest Delhi's Chhawla area, officials said.

An Air India flight carrying them from Milan landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) around 9.45 am.

Out of the total Indian nationals in this group, 211 are students.

After preliminary body temperature scanning at the tarmac, the evacuees were taken in ITBP buses to its Chhawla quarantine centre.

"All the 218 evacuees from Milan are being taken to our quarantine facility in southwest Delhi's Chhawla area. They will be there for over a fortnight as per quarantine procedures," an Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) force spokesperson said.

There are 154 males and 64 females in this group and the exercise to obtain their first samples for coronavirus testing has begun, he said.

Their reports are expected by late Monday evening, the spokesperson added.

The ITBP facility has earlier catered to two such batches of Indians and foreigners, evacuated from Wuhan in China, totalling 518 people.

The ITBP centre, like in the past, will have a dedicated team of doctors, para-medics and other staff apart from providing food, medical testing and indoor entertainment facility to the inmates, the spokesperson said.

The coronavirus outbreak, declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, has led to more than 6,000 deaths globally.

The government has suspended all visas, barring a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, in an attempt to prevent the spread of coronavirus as cases across India rose to more than 100. NES SMN SMN