Mumbai/New Delhi, A special Iran Air flight IR-810 carrying 44 Indians evacuated from the coronavirus-affected country arrived here from Tehran on Friday afternoon, officials said.
Besides the passengers, there are 17 crew members and the aircraft was parked for a few hours at an isolated area at Mumbai airport to avoid any contact with other passengers or flights.
All passengers and crew underwent the screening at the isolation bay, but it was not immediately known whether there are any passengers showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Thereafter, they were directly transferred by bus to the Indian Navy’s facility in Ghatkopar, north-east Mumbai suburb, to undergo the mandatory 14-day quarantine period.
Maharashtra with at least 17 positive cases so far has implemented stringent restrictions to avoid further spread of coronavirus in the state with a 12-crore population.
An earlier report had stated that all the passengers have tested negative, but would be quarantined as per the existing health protocol for coronavirus.
Informing of the developments, Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar tweeted that the second batch of Indian pilgrims arrived in India on Friday from Iran.
It was then reported that these 44 would be sent to a quarantine centre in Jaisalmer, but Col Sombit Ghosh, PRO Defence, told IANS that there is no confirmation about that.
Jaishankar praised the efforts of the medical team of the Indian embassy in Iran and Iranian authorities involved in the evacuation operation.
“Our efforts to bring back the others continue. @India_in_Iran and our medical team — keep up the good work. Appreciate the support of Iranian authorities and their airlines.”
After Wuhan, Italy and Iran witnessed the worst outbreak of coronavirus. Many Indians, including students, pilgrims and fishermen, have been stranded in Iran amid the outbreak.
The government will carry out another evacuation, but the date is yet to be decided, a Ministry official said on Thursday at a press conference.
The Indian government has set up a testing lab in Iran where the screening and tests are being conducted and prospective cases are detected there itself before bringing Indians back from Iran.
